To Boldly Go Where No Mutant Has Gone Before
by Chellerbelle
Summary: Star Trek fans, Gambit and Forge, are trapped in an alternate dimension superimposed on the Xavier Institute. Rogue may prove to be the key to their freedom, but could she also be the key to Gambit's undoing? Canon with X1-3 and XO: Wolverine
1. Chapter 1

**AN:**

This is a little something cooked up between myself and Lucida Lownes.

I haven't the foggiest idea if there's a regular _Star Trek_ convention in New York or not, so I'm just going to take creative license and say that there is.

You will probably get more out of this if you do watch _Star Trek_, but I will do my best to make _To Boldly Go Where No Mutant Has Gone Before_ accessible to those who don't. Please don't hesitate to ask if you're confused on anything.

This story begins a few years after the events of _X-men Origins: Wolverine_.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 1**

Gambit appraised the Xavier mansion as he drove down the driveway on his motorcycle. It was a big place, extensive grounds, very fancy. He could probably bypass security in ten minutes flat. He wouldn't though, mostly because of the beautiful young woman flying down to him.

"Remy," Storm greeted.

"Well, look at you, Stormy," Gambit exclaimed as he pulled off his helmet. "When you told me you had your powers under control now, you weren't kidding."

"Not in the slightest," Storm replied as her feet touched the ground. "And don't call me Stormy."

"What do you want me to call you then?" Gambit asked.

"How about 'Ro? Or just plain Storm?" she offered as she walked with him to the main doors.

"Just Plain Storm?" Gambit repeated as they stepped into the foyer. "There's nothing 'just plain' about you, chere."

Storm groaned, feeling much like she should have seen that coming.

"I couldn't agree more," said a young man in the foyer.

"Remy," said Storm, "this is Forge. Forge, this is Remy."

"It's nice to finally meet you," said Forge, holding out his hand. "'Ro's been really looking forward to your visit."

"Aww, I'm touched," Gambit said as he reached into his pocket for his cigarettes.

"No smoking inside," Storm said.

Gambit reluctantly put the packet back in his pocket. "Was a long trip chere,"

"I'm sure you'll have a chance to pump yourself full of chemicals later," Storm said dryly.

"Here's hoping," he replied cheerfully.

From there, Gambit was introduced to the other residents of Xaviers: the brainy and acrobatic Hank McCoy; the uptight young man behind the red glasses, Scott Summers; the red-headed beauty, Jean Grey, whom Gambit made a mental note to seduce later; and the man himself, wheel-chair bound Professor Xavier. There were also a handful of teenagers to whom Gambit paid very little attention.

* * *

"So, what do you think?" Storm asked him later that evening.

"Got yourself a nice place here, chere," Gambit replied as he looked out over the balcony. "Gone a long way from that little pickpocket I remember."

"Hmph," Storm snorted.

"How long have you have Forge been dating now?" he asked.

"Three years, give or take."

"He treat you well?"

"Well enough," Storm replied. "I imagine you're still playing the field."

Gambit shrugged and took a long drag from his cigarette.

"Ever think about not running any more?" Storm asked. "Settling down somewhere?"

"Making an honest living?" Gambit suggested mischievously. "Now why would I want to do a thing like that, Stormy?"

"Never know, Remy, you might like it. I know I do."

"You want me to stay."

"Well, I certainly didn't invite you here to tempt you into stealing anything."

Gambit laughed and Storm smiled at him. He smiled back and reached up with his free hand to flick a lock of hair out of her face.

"Forge is a very lucky man," he said.

"I didn't think you'd stay," she replied.

"That's 'cause you're smart, even if you do have high hopes," Gambit said with a smirk. "What's this place got that I can't get anywhere else?"

"Family," Storm replied quietly.

Gambit was quiet as he stubbed out his cigarette.

"In my experience, family's better the further you are away from it. Once you start getting close, that's when you get stabbed in the back," Gambit said.

"Remy - "

"I know what you meant, chere, mais this Cajun ain't interested in insinuating himself in any family."

"Not interested, or not ready?"

"Does it matter?"

"It does. What happened in New Orleans... I know Jean-Luc and Henri still care, full exile or no. I care."

"I know. I care about you too, 'Ro. That's the only reason I came at all, but only to visit. I won't be staying."

"Maybe I'll get lucky and you'll change your mind," Storm said. "It's not just me. We could use a man of your talents here."

"They already have a thief in you, chere," Gambit pointed out.

"No, I meant in combat, stealth, that kind of thing," Storm explained. "We're both learning and teaching the students and ourselves how to control our abilities and defend ourselves."

"You appear to be doing just fine without me."

"I can beat everyone here."

"Either you've improved a lot, or everyone is lousy."

Storm laughed.

"Care to find out?" she asked. "It's been awhile since you and I last sparred."

"It has indeed," Gambit agreed. "All right. By the way, I hope you don't mind, but I have a thing on this weekend so I might not be around much."

"A thing, huh?" Storm mused. "Did you think I wouldn't notice you chose to come down the same week the _Star Trek_ convention is on?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Gambit replied.

"I may not have known myself if it weren't for the fact that Forge is a fan," Storm went on knowingly. "Never know, you two might bump into each other there. Or you could carpool."

"You won't catch me at a _Star Trek_ convention."

"Well of course _I_ won't. I don't go to them."

"Smarty-pants."

"Closet Trekkie."

* * *

Early the next morning, Gambit was rather bemused to find that his sparring session with Storm had garnered an audience.

"We appear to have drawn quite a crowd," Gambit mused as he extended his telescopic bo-staff and smirked at the fascinated reaction it got.

"Indeed," Storm replied, her own practice staff in hand.

For the first minute or so they just circled each other casually.

"Just going to wait for me to make the first move?" Storm inquired.

"What makes you think I haven't already?" Gambit asked in reply.

A slight smile appeared at the corner of her mouth and disappeared just as quickly as she struck. Gambit countered easily, but neither had expected anything less. Everyone watched eagerly as blows increased in speed and skill. They both moved with such precision and style it almost seemed more like a dance.

Gambit jumped into the air to dodge the swing that came under his feet. He twisted mid air and grinned when he found Storm had anticipated his landing with a blow to the back.

"Aww chere, you have improved," he teased her even as his staff met her knee.

"I should hope so," Storm replied, twisting over the staff before it could floor her.

Gambit took advantage of her unbalance to tap her side. Storm just blocked it in time, as well as the flurry of blows that followed, and even succeeded in getting the upper hand by getting behind Gambit and pinning her staff under his chin.

"I think I may have actually won one," she said smugly. "Now, how does this go again? Bang, you -"

Storm's reverie was interrupted by Gambit leaning backwards into her, effectively becoming a dead weight and forcing her backwards. While Storm worked on staying upright, Gambit swung his staff backwards, clipped her behind the knee again and with a rap to her knuckles on the backswing, Storm was forced to let go and hit the ground. Gambit turned, grinned at her and put the end of his staff under her chin.

"Bang," he said. "You dead."

"One day," Storm sighed.

Gambit chuckled and retracted his staff. While one hand out his staff away, the other hand reached out to Storm to help her up.

"A most impressive display," said the Professor.

Gambit shrugged and glanced at Storm.

"Answer's still no," he said.

"Can't blame me for trying," Storm replied.

"Sure I can," Gambit told her. "I can't fault you for it though."

Storm laughed softly.

* * *

Gambit looked at the convention centre. Look at all those geeks, all dressed up in their little Star Trek costumes. He wouldn't be caught in a Star Fleet uniform. No way.

Besides, with eyes like his, who needed a costume?

A couple of hours into the convention, a Borg started waving at him.

"Hey Remy," he said. "'Ro said you might be here."

Gambit paused and looked the Borg over, complete with robot arm, leg and eye piece.

"Forge?" Gambit asked.

"Yep," Forge replied proudly.

"Well, you sure go all out on the costume," Gambit said, eyeing off the arm and leg which actually had moving parts.

"Actually, these two are real," Forge replied. "The eye piece is just for looks. I was in an accident a few years back. Good thing for me I have the all so awesome mutant power of inventing stuff, right?"

"Sure works out in your favour," Gambit agreed. "Excuse me."

"Hey, uhh, Remy," Forge said, hurrying to catch up with him. "We should hang out."

"Should we?" Gambit asked.

"Well, yeah. I mean, hey look how much stuff we have in common."

"So far I'm just seeing Stormy and _Star Trek_," Gambit replied and then was promptly distracted by a green woman. "Ooh Orion Slave Girl -"

"I prefer Seven of Nine, myself," Forge replied.

"Each to their own," Gambit said and attempted to move away.

"Hey Remy -"

"Look, Forge, we can 'hang out' later," Gambit said impatiently. "I gotta go do my Captain Kirk impersonation, if you catch my drift."

Forge blinked. "But you're not even in a Star Fleet uniform..."

"Picking up femmes," Gambit replied. "Not all of us are lucky enough to have a Stormy."

"See," Forge insisted, putting his real hand down on Gambit's shoulder, "that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

Gambit sighed as he reluctantly watched the green-painted woman walk away. She was a very modestly dressed Orion Slave Girl anyway.

"What?" Gambit asked.

"Well, I'm kinda thinking about proposing," Forge admitted.

"Shouldn't you be telling Stormy that?"

"Well, yeah, I will, I mean..." Forge stammered and then sighed. "See the thing is, you're kind of the closest thing she has to family outside of the X-men and -"

"What, you want my blessing or something?" Gambit asked, bemused. "Stormy's perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She doesn't need my approval."

"I know that," Forge replied. "Doesn't mean it wouldn't still be nice to have it."

A woman in an _Original Series_ Star Fleet uniform walked past.

"As long as Stormy's happy, I don't have a problem with it," Gambit replied. "Now if you'll excuse me, but given a choice between a Borg and a femme in a little red dress, I'd rather talk to the femme. Later."

* * *

Later in the dining hall over dinner:

"So what did you think of the convention, Remy?" asked Forge.

"What convention?" Gambit asked.

"You know, the _Star Trek_ one we went to today," Forge said, confused.

"You like _Star Trek_?" Scott asked Gambit incredulously.

"Don't know what you're talking about," Gambit replied leisurely. "I was busy working today."

"Just what is it exactly that you do?" Hank asked curiously.

"You didn't tell them?" Gambit asked Storm.

"Not everyone," Storm replied in bemusement, looking forward to seeing how this conversation was going to play out.

"I'm a thief," Gambit said casually as he pushed his next mouthful of food onto his fork. "I was casing a place I'm planning to rob."

There was silence as everyone stared at him. Storm hid her smile and Forge just looked confused.

"So you see," Gambit went on, "I couldn't possibly have been at the... erm, I mean, yes I was at the convention. All day, in fact. And if you hear anything about the Crowne Plaza being robbed in a couple of weeks time, it wasn't me."

Storm laughed.

"I'm confused," said Forge.

"By the way," Gambit said after he swallowed. "Would the telepath who's currently prodding at my mind stop it? It's a little distracting."

"Jean," the Professor said reprovingly.

"Sorry Remy," Jean said bashfully.

"I'm sure you can find a way to make it up to me," Gambit replied suggestively.

Jean blushed and Scott opened his mouth to object.

"Perhaps we could have a 'sparring' match sometime," Gambit said innocently. "But not tomorrow. I have more casing to do. Erm, I mean a convention to go to. The convention is on tomorrow as well, right Forge?"

"Uhh yes..." Forge replied, still confused.

"Great."

* * *

Jean started slightly at the feel of hot breath on her neck and hands that slipped gently onto her waist.

"Well now," Gambit's voice purred in her ear. "Aren't you just a sight for sore eyes?"

"Uhh, hi Remy," Jean said, a little nervously.

"You wouldn't happen to be free tonight, would you chere?"

Jean licked her lips slightly before answering: "Well, actually I have plans with Scott tonight."

"Hmm," Gambit murmured. "Pity."

And as quickly and silently as he arrived, he left, leaving Jean blushing. For a moment she was a little disappointed that she already had plans with Scott.

* * *

The night before Gambit was to leave, he made his way down to Forge's lab.

"Bonjour," he greeted as he stepped inside.

"Huh? Oh, hi Remy," Forge replied.

"I come at a bad time, mon ami?" Gambit asked as he watched Forge fiddle with a funny dome-shaped gadget on the bench.

"No, no, it's good," Forge said. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I'm going to be leaving early tomorrow morning," he said. "Figured I'd say my good byes now. Whatcha working on?"

"Gee, already? You haven't really been here that long," Forge said. "This? It's a transporter."

"A transporter, hein?" Gambit inquired, amused. "Working on making real _Star Trek_ technology?"

"Sure, why not?" Forge asked. "You have to admit, it would be really useful."

"Depending on what you used it for, sure," Gambit replied with mischief as he leaned on the bench.

"Why do I always get the impression you're talking about something else?"

"I don't know, mon ami. Why do you?"

"You're a very strange person."

"This coming from a cyborg," Gambit said, grinning at him. "Making much progress on it?"

"Well, I figured out how to make things disappear," Forge replied. "It's the reappearing part that's the problem. I keep thinking I'm missing something."

"The things you're making disappear perhaps?"

"Very funny."

"I thought so," Gambit said cheerfully. "I've got other good byes to make, but ahh, be sure to send me an invite to the wedding, hein?"

"You... you think she'll say 'yes'?" Forge asked hopefully.

Gambit shrugged.

"She's been with you three years, no? I'd say the odds are in your favour," he replied, holding out his hand to Forge, just in front of the transporter. "Until next time."

"Thanks," Forge said, shaking Gambit's hand with enthusiasm. "Thanks so much, I -"

Forge cut himself off as his other hand fumbled across the buttons. Before either of them had a chance to react, it powered up, surged and both men felt a kind of static run over their bodies. The static gave way to disorientation.

"What the hell just happened?" Gambit asked at the same time Forge said: "Hey, that's where all this stuff went."

Gambit glanced at Forge, then at a pile of junk in his lab he hadn't noticed before.

"You got all your transporter stuff back?" Gambit asked.

"Well, in a manner of speaking..." Forge said uncertainly.

"What do you mean, 'in a manner of speaking'?" Gambit demanded, even as he answered his own question when his hand phased through the bench. "Did we just get transported?"

"Umm, well, yes..." Forge said.

"So get us back," Gambit demanded with quiet forcefulness.

"Well..."

"Forge..."

"I can't."

"What do you mean, you _can't?_"

"Not without help from the outside," Forge said as he moved through the furniture in his own personal test. "The machine is on the outside, ergo we need someone on the outside to use the machine. I think it must have sent us to some kind of parallel dimension... In fact, gauging from the way that our bodies can phase, I'd wager we've been sent outside of the normal frequency range and -"

"Spare me the technobabble," Gambit cut in. "How do we communicate with the outside?"

"Well, umm, Professor Xavier and Jean are telepaths," Forge pointed out. "They might be able to sense us."

"Sense you," Gambit corrected. "My powers provide me with a static shield. Telepaths can't read my mind, 'least not easily."

"Oh, well, they can read mine," Forge said assuredly.

"Good," Gambit said. "So let's go find them and you can tell them how to use the machine to get us back."

He started off, realised Forge wasn't following, looked back at him with and glare and let out a long breath.

"You said you didn't know how to get things back, didn't you?" Gambit practically growled.

"Well, I, uhh..."

"Merde! You had better start putting that invention power of yours to work, homme, or I'm going to -"

"Let's go find the Professor," Forge interrupted hurriedly. "At the very least we should let everyone know what's happened."

Gambit said nothing. He didn't need to; his silence was enough to make Forge wince. They stepped out of the lab and made their way to the elevator.

"All right," said Gambit. "How do we get up?"

"Umm well, we've been phasing through furniture. Maybe we can phase through the elevator shaft as well?" Forge asked.

The two glanced at each other, then they stepped tentatively through the elevator doors and into the elevator which was conveniently on that level. There was another pause and the Gambit stepped up into the air. To his surprise, he was actually able to walked on the very air and he and Forge walked their way through the roof of the elevator and up through the shaft.

"Well, this is an odd sensation," Gambit muttered.

"Yeah," Forge agreed.

They made it to the ground floor and from there they located Professor Xavier in his study.

"Hi Professor," said Forge. "Umm, you can hear us right?"

They looked at the Professor expectantly, but he went on writing. Forge stepped through the desk and waved his hand in the Professor face.

"Professor? Hello?"

"This had better work," Gambit practically growled.

"Professor!" Forge shouted.

Forge attempted to force the matter by touching him, but just like the furniture and the walls, Forge's hand just phased right through him.

"He can't hear you, can he?" Gambit said dangerously.

"Don't look like it," Forge replied. "I... I guess his telepathy doesn't work on this frequency. Oooorrr maybe we should try when he's using Cerebro? That amplifies his powers."

"I don't care what you do, or how you do it," Gambit said. "Just as long as we get out of here."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: **Okay for those of you unfamiliar with _Star Trek_, I have included some notes at the bottom (with numbered references) to explain what on earth Forge and Gambit are talking about. Also, I really love the word "technobabble".

I'm sure that anyone who's seen the episode of _X-men Evolution _where Forge appears has probably recognised where Gambit and Forge are by now, hehe.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"Excuse me Professor," said Storm as she stepped into his office, "but I can't seem to find Forge or Remy anywhere. I don't suppose you've seen them?"

"Not recently," the Professor replied, looking up from his desk. "Wasn't Remy leaving today?"

"Yes but all his things are still here," Storm said. "His bike's still in the garage too. Forge isn't in his lab. No one's seen either of them since last night."

"I'm afraid you'll have to add me to the list," said the Professor.

Storm sighed and sat down on a nearby chair.

"I even checked the grounds in case Remy had gone for a smoke. Nothing. And even if he was, that doesn't explain where Forge has gone and disappeared to. All the cars are still here," she went on. "This isn't like any of them… Okay, it's not like Forge. But Remy wouldn't leave without saying goodbye at least, and he sure wouldn't leave his bike behind."

The Professor nodded and looked at her expectantly.

"I don't suppose you would mind looking for them with Cerebro, would you?" Storm asked.

"Of course," said the Professor mildly. "You only had to ask."

"Thank you."

Storm walked with Professor Xavier to Cerebro. Unseen by either of them were Gambit and Forge, who followed them in anticipation.

"He'll find us," Forge said, sounding a lot like he was trying to convince himself as well as Gambit.

Gambit didn't reply. Instead, he and Forge waited outside of Cerebro with Storm while the Professor conducted his search. Gambit was tapping his foot impatiently when the Professor finally emerged.

"I'm afraid I couldn't find any sign of them," the Professor admitted, sounding perplexed. "I'll try again later if they haven't shown up in the meantime."

Gambit shot Forge a dark glare while Storm thanked Professor Xavier for his help. Forge shifted nervously.

"M-maybe we should have been in Cerebro with him?" Forge suggested.

Gambit didn't say anything. Instead he pulled out his playing cards and sprung them from hand to hand as he walked down the hall. Forge sunk down to the ground as Gambit disappeared from view.

* * *

Forge felt like he could cry after the Professor's second attempt that evening was a miserable failure. Even with both of them in Cerebro, even phasing through the Professor at irregular intervals, Professor Xavier still couldn't find them. Gambit was angry as all hell (it was actually rather scaring Forge).

Still, a couple of hours thereafter, Forge worked up the nerve to find Gambit and try talking to him about it. It took him awhile, but he eventually found Gambit in Jean's room.

"What are you doing!" Forge exclaimed, averting his eyes while Jean dressed.

"Reducing myself to peeping tom," Gambit drawled. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"You can't spy on Jean like that!"

"Sure I can. I am, aren't I? Not like it's accomplishing anything. I watched her in the shower and not even that gave me a hard on."

"I don't want to know," Forge objected.

"Why don't you take a long look at Jean? Or maybe Stormy, seeing as how you're dating her and see if you can get any reaction from, heh, downstairs?" Gambit suggested with a smirk.

"Is sex the only thing you ever think about?" Forge demanded.

"Actually, I think stealing is more fun than sex," Gambit replied mildly. "Unfortunately, there's precious little to steal around here. I tried smoking but have you noticed we don't even breathe in here? I can't suck in any of the smoke."

"You can't?" Forge asked curiously.

Gambit finally looked at him.

"Try sucking in some air," Gambit instructed. "Try blowing some out. Try holding your breath."

Forge did as he was bade, but although his mouth went through all the motions he couldn't feel any air pass his lips.

"Hey, you're right," Forge said.

"We haven't needed to sleep," Gambit went on. "I don't know about you, but I haven't been hungry or defecated or anything. All due respect to Jean, this was more an experiment to see if all my bodily functions had entered stasis, which, by the way, looks like they have. I can't even spit." [1]

Forge immediately then tried to spit as well, only to find that he couldn't either.

"Interesting," Forge said with a contemplative expression on his face.

"Only thing I can do outside of walking around and talking, is use my powers," Gambit continued. "I can still blow stuff up, which is a small comfort anyway. This little alternate dimension of ours just about expands the entire Xavier estate. I can't be sure, but I think it's basically created a bubble around your lab. Can't get past the wall."

"Wow, you've been doing a lot of investigation."

"You don't think I was spending all my time sulking do you?"

"Well…"

"Just get us out of the transporter buffer, Forge," Gambit said grimly. "Unlike Scotty, we're both aware of the passage of time, and I have no intention of waiting seventy years before we get out of here." [2]

"I don't think that the transporter buffer would be anything like -" Forge began until he saw the look on Gambit's face. "I've been thinking, really! I even thought of something that should enable us to return, a couple of things, actually..."

"I'm sensing a 'but'," Gambit said as he followed Forge out of Jean's room.

"But I don't have all the parts I need," Forge said. "We still need help from the other side."

"And we still have no way of communicating with the other side," Gambit said, tapping his fingers on his leg. "What kind of things do you need? I might have something."

"Yeah?" Forge asked curiously.

He watched as Gambit started taking things out of his trench coat pockets. Lots of things, in fact, to the point where Forge stared at Gambit in complete and utter shock as he continued to pull out the oddest collection of seemingly random items.

"What on earth do you need all this stuff for?" Forge asked in amazement.

"I'm a thief," Gambit replied.

"So you stole all this stuff?"

"Maybe."

"Or do you use all this stuff to steal stuff?"

"Maybe."

"You're not going to give me a straight answer, are you?"

"The point is," Gambit said with a smirk, "I have it. Can you use any of it to get us out of here?"

"Well, the fuse wire may be useful - I'm not even going to ask why you have fuse wire on you -"

"Wise man."

"Or the talcum powder, or the mirrors -"

"You don't become this good looking by accident."

"Or... whatever this thing is supposed to be..."

"You're probably happier not knowing."

"But I think I can work with this," Forge finished. "Certainly there are more possibilities than I thought there was."

"Good to know," Gambit replied.

* * *

Unfortunately, to the frustration of both men, Forge was unable to put together any of his ideas. Parts were one problem, tools were another and available power was a third. Although Forge's mechanical arm contained a number of useful tools, it didn't incorporate all the ones he used. He also looked at Gambit's kinetic energy as a potential power source.

"I'm so sure I can use your powers," Forge often said as time passed.

"Just concentrate on using yours," Gambit would usually reply.

"It's not that easy. I can invent, but I still need tools and parts. You steal, but you still need tools and parts too. It's the same thing."

Storm, Professor Xavier and the other residents searched regularly and thoroughly. They had two theories; one, they had been abducted; or two, something had happened in Forge's lab.

The days turned into weeks, and what had been sunny weather became gray. It was disconcerting to everyone to see the weather witch so out of sorts; she had been working so hard to keep her emotions in control, but the loss of two men she loved dearly was too much for her to bear. The peaks of Storm's heartbreak were punctuated by lightning strikes, her tears with rain and in the end, Storm became the priority over Gambit and Forge.

Forge would often attempt to hold Storm and try to comfort her. It didn't really work. He could wrap his arms around her, but he was really only touching what passed for air in this dimension. He couldn't feel the love of his life at all. Desperation drove Forge more than anything else. When he wasn't attempting to be with Storm, he was experimenting endlessly with invention after invention, wanting so badly for something – anything – to work. Unfortunately, the few devices he did succeed in getting to function didn't help them escape.

Fighting was inevitable. It would start out as an argument borne out of frustration until one of them reached the point where he hit the other. Regardless of who made the first strike, however, Gambit always emerged the victor. He was older than Forge, and had the additional advantages of having learned to fight about the same time he learned to walk, and was not afraid to fight dirty.

These fights were never really very satisfactory, however. Although they felt the impact, and occasionally even felt pain from the various blows, they never got as much as a bruise. No scratches, no loose teeth, no bleeding, no broken bones, nothing. And just like every other bodily function, neither could even release their frustrations with tears. It was a horrible kind of existence; no way to live and no way to die.

When he wasn't busy harassing or otherwise fighting with Forge, Gambit was wandering through the mansion. In the beginning he primarily kept an eye and ear out for progress on their search to find them, but as the search began to wane on the list of priorities, Gambit found himself becoming immersed in the general goings-on of the residents. He was always up on the latest gossip, watched the favourite TV shows (why did no one in this place watch _Star Trek_? He was missing valuable episodes of _Deep Space Nine _and _Voyager_), kept up-to-date on the news headlines and would occasionally pick a resident to just follow around for the day, just to see what they did. He quickly became quite familiar with everyone's routines.

In many ways, watching the residents almost became a TV show in itself. There wasn't nearly as much drama as TV would lead you to believe about what happens in high school, of course, and the school wasn't very populated for another. Nevertheless, when powers and combat training came into the mix, things did get interesting, especially with some of the more visual activities. Gambit liked to try and pick who would win any given sparring match, or how many targets Scott might hit (or miss), and other such inane things. He became very good at picking winners and was somewhat disappointed he couldn't gamble with anyone – Forge wasn't interested.

Eventually Gambit's things were moved into Forge's lab, which was locked. The exception was Gambit's motorcycle, which was moved into the back room of the garage. The Professor continued to look for Gambit and Forge with Cerebro, but what started out as a twice-daily routine changed to daily, then weekly, fortnightly, monthly, and then finally whenever the Professor remembered it had been awhile since he last looked. It wasn't that the Professor didn't care or didn't want to find them; it was more that the lack of results was discouraging. Either something was shielding them from Cerebro, or they were dead, and there was nothing he could do about either option.

* * *

It was quite by accident that Gambit found out he could influence the outside world.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Gambit demanded of Jean as she prepared dinner. "That is not how you make – would you put the cinnamon down already! It's had quite enough cinnamon. In fact, it's had too much cinnamon. What are you? A cinnamon addict or something?"

The fact that he couldn't eat the food was not the point.

Gambit watched with arms folded across his chest while Jean put the small container down.

"Good. Now leave it there. Don't touch it again, woman," Gambit told her, knowing full well Jean couldn't hear a word he was saying.

Gambit wrapped his hand around the cinnamon container, wishing he could actually hold it and preferably hide it from her. However, when he saw Jean turn to look at it ten minutes later, he just knew she was about to put more on. In his rage at what he considered to be a culinary disaster in the making, Gambit found himself charging up the air around his fingers. Magenta light shone brightly as he poured his rage into that charge. Just as Jean's fingers curled around the cinnamon container, superimposed over Gambit's, the charge exploded.

Jean gave a cry as she reefed her hand away from what she had perceived as a mild shock of static electricity. Gambit became subject to the first wave of tiredness he'd felt since he'd gotten trapped here. Barely able to keep his eyes open, Gambit only just managed to register what had happened before falling asleep.

* * *

"Forge!" Gambit yelled sometime later, running to locate him in his lab. "Forge! You will never guess what I did!"

"Okay," Forge replied, giving him an odd look. "What did you do?"

"I slept," he said proudly. "A full eight hours. And you wanna know how I did it?"

"You used your powers?" Forge suggested. "That's the only time I get tired these days; when I use my powers."

"How does that work? Aren't your powers passive?" Gambit asked, then shook his head. "Never mind that. The point is I shocked Jean."

"Okay..."

"I super-charged the air," Gambit said excitedly, "and I let go when her fingers touched the spot I was charging and she got zapped. The cinnamon container's still intact though, which is a shame because I would have liked some more visual evidence to show you, but we're just going to have to find someone so you can see for yourself. And I know just the target!"

Although perplexed, Forge allowed Gambit to lead him to Scott's room. Scott was on his bed, reading a book. Gambit sat down beside him.

"Okay, watch this," Gambit said gleefully.

He placed a couple of fingers over Scott's left hand – the one he was using to hold his book up – and concentrated. Forge watched the build up of magenta light. Finally, Gambit let the charge go and much to Forge's surprise, Scott gave a startled yelp as he was zapped with what he thought was static electricity. This reduced Gambit to a state of lethargy once more, but already Forge's brain was ticking away at the possibilities.

The next logical person to zap was Professor Xavier. They succeeded in zapping him in his office, and then the next day in Cerebro. He noticed both times, but he gave no indication that he had noticed either of them telepathically.

At one point Gambit tried zapping the Professor with Forge's finger underneath his. But either the window of opportunity was too small for the Professor to sense either of their minds, or Gambit's kinetic energy shielded Forge's mind as well as his own. In any case, the attempt also shorted out the circuitry in Forge's artificial limbs (Forge was very grateful for Gambit's supply of fuse wire), so they didn't try that again.

Their next attempt to get Professor Xavier's attention was to zap him every day at 4pm like clockwork. Surely a pattern of zappings would attract his notice?

Unfortunately, when the Professor did notice the pattern, he only ended up having a quiet word with the pranksters and those with mutations capable of producing the static shock. Forge and Gambit discussed continuing the experiment, but decided in the end that since it was obvious that the Professor couldn't sense them, they should change their plan.

So then they started zapping Hank every day at 4pm like clockwork.

Forge insisted that Hank was a genius, and based on his observations, Gambit wasn't inclined to disagree. Hank noticed the pattern within a week, no doubt because he had been amongst the pranksters that had been given a quiet word by the Professor. It continued long enough that Hank even started running his own investigations to try and find out who and what was responsible.

Much to Forge and Gambit's frustrations, however, Hank and a friend of his outside the mansion were awarded a research grant and he ended up moving out of the mansion.

Once again they found themselves at a loss.

They tried zapping other residents on a regular basis. Jean thought it was her own powers responsible, Scott just ignored it and Storm didn't even seem to feel it in the first place.

Forge worked on various power amplifiers. Unfortunately, the only one he could get to work was not nearly enough to open up a big enough hole for them to get through. However, Gambit was convinced that when he used it, the finger that was generally the focus of his charging would actually touch something on the other side. Forge tried to make a stronger one, but like most of his other mechanical solutions, he lacked in the necessary pieces to put it together.

They also tried finding weak spots in the dimensional dome in an attempt to see if Gambit could get more than the tip of his finger out into the world. If there were any weak spots, they never found them.

Forge did come to the conclusion, however, that if they could get someone to press the "reset" button on his transporter, then they could get free. His only concern was that they would need a certain amount of power to expel them from the dimension before it collapsed otherwise they would either be dead or trapped inside forever. Neither man considered these to be happy options, but after one particular lousy day, they decided to see if Gambit could press the button himself.

Although afterwards Gambit was convinced he felt the button beneath his finger (Forge was skeptical Gambit could actually be sure of this, as the moment was very brief), he had been unable to actually press it in. Given their ability to phase through different objects, they also discussed the possibility of shorting out the transporter. They ultimately dismissed this, however, figuring the destruction would definitely lead to death or being trapped inside forever, with no opportunity for escape.

On his own, Gambit occasionally wrote down a message on paper and attempted to push it through the hole he was convinced he could create. The window of opportunity never lasted long enough to accomplish this.

* * *

Time went by and Gambit's interaction with the outside world started becoming more and more recreational rather than practical. Using the amplifier he could get away with a slightly lower-level charge and not send himself to sleepy-land automatically. It amused him greatly to use his daily charge on an unsuspecting victim; someone trying to eavesdrop, people playing hide-and-seek (in or out of the danger room), students falling asleep in class, girls with ticklish sides just so he could laugh at them squealing when they got zapped.

Forge was just happy that with Gambit's new entertainment, such as it was, they weren't fighting as much.

* * *

**AN:**

[1]  
Technobabble: Stasis is suspended animation; or an induced, prolonged sleep intended to slow down the body's aging process, if you prefer.

[2]  
Technobabble: During a transport in _Star Trek_, the person or object being transported is temporarily stored in the "transporter buffer" in between locations. I.e: Location A - Transporter Buffer - Location B.

Episode: There's an episode of _The Next Generation _called "Relics" where they met up with Scotty from the _Original Series_. The premise is that Scotty's ship ran into problems so in order to preserve his life, he stored himself in the transporter buffer. He was there for about 75 years before he was found.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The student population continued to grow and expand, something which Forge and Gambit were grateful for. Right now they felt that their best bet was finding a mutant whose powers allowed them some kind of transdimensional ability, a teleporter, perhaps.

Then one day, after six years stuck in their own personal hellhole, thirteen-year-old Kitty Pryde walked through the door.

Literally.

"Please tell me she's our ticket out of here," said Gambit hopefully, watching the young mutant as she went about her business.

"I sure hope so," Forge replied. "It all depends on whether she can phase through our dimension. We should try being in front of her when she phases, and talking to her. If she can see or hear us, I'd say our odds of getting out of here just hit the roof."

Gambit didn't want to ask about what would happen if she couldn't. This was going to work. It had to work. He needed to get out of this place.

So for the next month or so, Gambit and Forge basically stalked Kitty around the mansion. They anticipated every time she phased, determined to get her attention. While they were thrilled to bits to discover she was rather lazy about opening doors and the like, they were not too happy when they couldn't get her attention at all. They shouted and got in her way. Kitty just phased through them without even a bat of her eye. Gambit even tried zapping her, but although she definitely felt it when she was solid, she never felt it when she was phased.

"It's no use," Forge said finally. "If anything it's worse. She obviously phases through another frequency all together. We're probably lucky we can even see her at all when she phases."

"We can't just give up!" Gambit objected.

"I'm not suggesting we should," Forge replied mildly. "We're just going to have to try something else."

Forge more or less took over at that point, trying to figure out if he could determine which frequency Kitty phased at. He was heartened by the fact that they could still see her when she phased, even if she couldn't see them as it helped narrow things down for him.

Unfortunately Forge was once again - predictably - foiled by the lack of parts. Gambit had pretty much given up on Forge's inventive powers by this point. Although Forge was reasonably certain that he'd figured out the logical frequency range that Kitty was phasing through, he had no way of testing precisely which one, let alone trying to send a message through.

Thus Gambit went back to his recreational zapping and occasionally yelling at Kitty for not being able to see them.

* * *

Three years later, a young teleporter arrived at the school. Trying to work with him, however, was even worse than trying to work with Kitty. The instantaneous nature of his power made it impossible to tell if he passed through their dimension at all.

* * *

One year later, Gambit and Forge were in the hanger alongside Jean and a gurney as the Blackbird landed. The ramp lowered and the first person to step through the doorway was a teenage girl wrapped up in a long green coat. Her eyes were wide as she looked around the hanger.

"Welcome to Xavier's," said Jean. "I'm Miss Grey."

"Rogue," the girl replied.

"Ha," Gambit said with a snicker. "I like her already."

"What? Because her name's Rogue?" Forge asked while Jean continued to talk to Rogue.

"Absolument," Gambit replied cheerfully. "She's the only one in this place that has a thief-like codename."

"You're an idiot." Forge informed him.

"Nah, I just really like stealing. Oh hello," Gambit went on, looking back up at the Blackbird. "Here's our patient."

Jean and Rogue were forgotten as Storm and Scott emerged with a stretcher. Gambit frowned slightly at the sight of the body – there was something vaguely familiar about him.

"Man," huffed Scott as they finally got their patient on the gurney. "I don't know what this guy eats, but he's heavier than he looks."

"Merde!" Gambit exclaimed. "That's Logan."

"Friend of yours?" Forge asked.

"I think acquaintance would be more accurate," Gambit replied as they followed Jean and Scott make their way down to the med lab with Logan. "Still, it's hard to forget a guy who can shoot metal claws out of his hands, heal from bullet wounds to the head and just generally cause total destruction every where he goes."

"Yeah," Forge conceded. "I suppose it would be."

"I wonder what's knocked him under?" Gambit mused, looking at Logan curiously.

"Some of that total destruction?" Forge suggested.

"... got him off just before the whole thing exploded," Scott finished telling Jean.

Forge and Gambit looked at each other and snickered. They finally reached the med lab, Jean assured Scott she could take it from there, and Scott hurried back upstairs before he was late for the very class he was teaching.

Jean telekinetically lifted Logan from the gurney and moved him to the medical bed. She then proceeded to remove his shirt and set up her monitors.

"Maybe I should zap him," Gambit mused. "I hope he hangs around. Logan living in a school; funniest thing I've heard in ages."

"Just as long as he doesn't go mass destruction near my lab," Forge replied.

"Your lab has been locked up for the last ten years," Gambit pointed out.

"Just as long as he doesn't go mass destruction near my lab," Forge repeated.

Gambit snickered.

"I think I'll save the zapping for later," Gambit decided, "when he can enjoy it. Besides, it's far too early in the day for sleepings."

Forge chuckled.

They hung around while Jean went meticulously about her work. The minutes passed and Gambit glanced at the time with a confused frown.

"Huh," Gambit said. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the first class just starting when we came down here?"

"No, that's right," Forge replied.

"Well, we're just a few minutes away from the bell," Gambit said. "I wonder why he hasn't woken up yet? I'm sure he healed faster from a bullet to the head faster than this."

"Maybe they gave him a sedative on the Blackbird?" Forge suggested.

Gambit was about to reply when Logan shot up as Jean was attempting to inject him. Then, just as fast as he had pulled her into a headlock, Logan let go and made for the doors.

"Oh fun," Gambit said as he ran after him. "A chase!"

Forge laughed. They followed Logan out to where the uniforms were kept. Gambit approved of him stealing a hoodie. Forge rolled his eyes and muttered something about the Professor probably letting him keep said hoodie. Logan had no idea that he had two witnesses who were getting much entertainment out of his predicament.

"Kinda jumpy, isn't he?" Gambit said with a smirk.

Forge chuckled. The elevator doors opened and Logan stepped inside. Moments later, Logan stepped out again into the main hall and the pair watched as Logan walked down, on edge, ducking and hiding at every sound and successfully avoiding being spotted by a group of students - right up until he entered the Professor's classroom and Gambit cracked up laughing at the expressions on everyone's faces.

"Times like this you want popcorn," Gambit decided as he made himself at home on the corner of the Professor's desk.

Forge chuckled as they watched the scene unfold. Professor Xavier introduced himself and after Logan informed him that he didn't need medical attention, he asked about "the girl".

"Rogue? She's fine -" the Professor began.

"Really?" Logan asked and then turned as the door behind him opened.

"Hey," Forge said as Storm and Scott entered the room. "You two have classes. You're not supposed to be here."

"And Jean struts into the room," Gambit said gleefully. "Hey, Logan's checking her out."

"Oh good," said Forge while the Professor explained about Magneto and Sabretooth. "We haven't had any interesting drama since Bobby, John and Jubilee went on that prank war."

"That was hilarious," Gambit said. "Stormy, why did you have to be responsible and put an end to it? Why?"

"What do they call you?" Logan asked with a smirk as he turned to the Professor. "Wheels?"

"He just mocked Professor Xavier," Gambit said with a grin.

"He just mocked a guy in a wheelchair," Forge said pointedly.

"It's a pity we didn't have a chance to get to know each other better," Gambit said cheerfully while Logan grabbed Scott by his jacket. "I bet we would have gotten along great."

"You're a sad, strange man," Forge said sagely.

"But I'm fun," Gambit began then paused as the Professor started talking about Logan's memory loss. "Hey, I was there when he lost his memory. Has it really been fifteen years?"

"How'd he loose his memory?" Forge asked.

"I think it had something to do with the bullets to the head," Gambit replied. "I saw them heal up and when he got up he didn't know who I was any more. Imagine forgetting me."

"I wish I could."

"What is this place?" asked Logan.

* * *

That evening that Gambit spotted the new girl, Rogue, walk down the hall. She looked a little nervous as she moved about the mansion, although whether this was because she was a nervous person, or just because she was in a new place, Gambit didn't know. A smirk grew on her face as he realised she was headed to Logan's room.

"Just how is it that you two know each other anyway?" Gambit asked her. "Daughter or something? You don't really look that much alike, although I suppose that doesn't always mean anything."

"Logan," Rogue called as she approached Logan's side. "Logan, wake up."

Gambit frowned slightly and wondered why she just didn't shake him awake. She had hands didn't she? Yet she conscientiously kept her hands from touching him. It was then that it occurred to Gambit that Rogue had been wearing gloves all day, and then he started wondering exactly what her mutation was.

Logan, for his part, was obviously too immersed in his nightmare, and Gambit decided this was a prime opportunity to both annoy Logan and help a damsel in distress. He hadn't used his charge for the day as yet – a prime opportunity hadn't seemed to come up – and thus it was with a big smirk on his face that Gambit charged up air molecules right by Logan's neck. He waited for the right twitch of Logan's head and let the explosion go.

Logan's eyes shot open. He yelled and Rogue screamed. The smirk on Gambit's face turned to horror as Logan's unsheathed claws stabbed Rogue through the chest.

"No, no, no!" Gambit exclaimed in horror.

He'd just wanted to help – and annoy Logan – not get anyone killed!

Logan retracted his claws and called for help. At the same time, Rogue lifted her hand and touched his face. Strange lines webbed across his skin and Gambit watched in shock as the three wounds healed up before his eyes. The pit of horror in Gambit's stomach turned to sick relief as Rogue let go and Logan collapsed to the floor.

Gambit barely noticed everyone part as Rogue left the room, or those who tended to Logan and sent the students back to bed. Tired from both the effort of creating the charge and from shock at what had transpired, he fell into a restless sleep.

* * *

"It's about time you woke up," Forge said as Gambit woke up the next morning on the floor of Logan's room. "You missed all the excitement."

"Rogue getting stabbed by Logan and then using his healing factor to heal herself?" Gambit asked.

"Then again, maybe not."

"I zapped Logan to wake him up for Rogue," Gambit explained.

"Oh, so it was all your fault then," Forge teased him.

"I felt sorry for her... and I hadn't used my daily charge yet. Didn't imagine we'd almost get a fatality out of it. Merde. Is everyone all right?"

"Yeah. Logan nearly killed Rogue, Rogue nearly killed Logan. Both are still alive. It all worked out."

"She nearly killed Logan?" Gambit asked in surprise. "How? Just from stealing his healing factor?"

"Actually she 'absorbs life force'," Forge informed him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I have no idea."

"Because it looked like she was a power stealer to me," Gambit said.

"Well, that's part of it," Forge said. "I was there when Logan woke up and heard the Professor talking to him about it. When she absorbs life force from mutants she also borrows their powers."

"Steals."

"Borrows, klepto," Forge corrected. "They get their powers back, therefore it's borrowing."

"Well, that's no fun," Gambit replied.

"I swear, a shrink would make a fortune trying to make sense of your head."

* * *

At about lunchtime that day, Gambit located Rogue outside talking to Bobby. He arrived just in time to hear Bobby same some rather strange things to Rogue about what had happened. He was still puzzling over why in the world Bobby would tell Rogue that the Professor was angry with her, when Rogue got up and left. Gambit followed, but couldn't go any further once she passed the bounds of the bubble.

When Gambit returned to the bench, he spotted Bobby approaching a group of kids and heard him ask them if they'd seen Rogue anywhere. What the hell?

* * *

"Something weird is going on," Gambit told Forge later. "Either Bobby's decided to play cruel practical jokes or he has an evil twin."

"Oh yeah?" asked Forge. "What happened?"

"He told Rogue the Professor was angry with her and that she wasn't supposed to use her powers against another mutant," Gambit replied. "He basically told her to leave."

"_Bobby_ said that?" Forge asked dubiously.

"It sure looked like him," Gambit replied with a shrug. "In either case, after Rogue left the Institute -"

"She's gone?"

"- I found Bobby asking if anyone had seen her. So either Bobby is pulling a nasty version of 'telling someone they're in trouble and then pretending like the conversation never happened' on the new kid - and it's backfired - or he has a doppelganger or something," Gambit finished.

Forge snapped his fingers.

"What about Mystique? Didn't Scott say something about fighting Sabretooth when they picked up Rogue and Logan?" Forge asked.

"Yeah, the Professor seems to think that Magneto's after Logan," Gambit replied. "Why on earth Magneto would want a guy with a metal skeleton I don't know."

"So he can play puppet master?" Forge suggested.

"Why drive Rogue away though?" Gambit asked.

"Bait?"

"Maybe. I don't know."

Forge shook his head and sighed.

"As much as I hate to say it," Forge said. "There's nothing we can do about it except for watch and wait for it to play out."

"Well, apparently if I zap someone I the right time I can cause a near-fatality," Gambit muttered. "Maybe that'll come in useful."

* * *

It didn't take long for them to realise that Rogue had gone, and the five: Logan, Storm, Scott, Jean and Professor Xavier headed out to the train station to collect her.

While they were out, Forge happened to spot Bobby heading towards Cerebro. He followed; Bobby had no reason to be there. Forge was additionally confused when Bobby knelt down in front of the doors, which opened with a "Welcome Professor". As "Bobby" stood, Forge watched in horror as he transformed into Mystique. He followed her inside just in time to see her added something to Cerebro's mechanics and swore under his breath.

There was nothing he could do except confirm to Gambit that their suspicion about Mystique being on the premises had been right.

* * *

Gambit and Forge were both rather frustrated about the team coming back without Rogue and with very little explanation of what happened. They gathered that it had been Rogue, not Logan that Magneto was after, and the Brotherhood had succeeded in abducting her.

"I'm going to find her," Logan said.

"How?" asked the Professor.

"The traditional way: look."

Gambit snickered.

It was about that time that the mansion got a surprise visitor: a very sickly-looking Senator Kelly. After the Professor looked into the Senator's mind to find out what had happened, Gambit and Forge sat in on the briefing that followed in the war room.

"Wait a second," said Scott. "You said that this machine draws its power from Magneto, and that it weakened him."

"Yes," the Professor replied, and everyone could practically see the wheels turning in his mind. "In fact it nearly killed him."

"He's going to transfer his power to Rogue and use her to power the machine," Logan finished.

"Well, there's a diabolical evil scheme if I ever heard one," Gambit commented while the Professor organised for them to go after them.

"Poor kid," Forge said. "This seems to be her day for near-death experiences."

"Oh, shut up Scott," Gambit said while Scott disputed Logan going them on the rescue mission. "He knew Rogue long before you did."

The door burst open.

"Senator Kelly is dead," said Storm.

"I'm going to find her," the Professor said after a moment's shocked silence.

"Remy," Forge said, grabbing him. "He's going to use Cerebro!"

"But it's been sabotaged... Merde!" Gambit exclaimed. "Well, I haven't used my daily charge yet. You think I can shock him into not getting... whatevered?"

"Man, I don't know," Forge replied. "But this is not going to be good."

They did follow the Professor down to Cerebro and as he put on the headpiece, Gambit started to build up a charge at the back of his neck.

"I'm going full charge this time," Gambit warned Forge. "So it's going to be instant good night to me."

Forge nodded and Gambit let the explosion go. He just hoped it would be enough.

* * *

A full night's sleep later Gambit tracked Forge down; he was in the dining room.

"Hey," Gambit greeted. "How'd it go?"

Forge gestured over to a table where Rogue sat with Bobby, John, Jubilee, Piotr and Kitty. Gambit raised his eyebrows at the sight of Rogue with a white-streak in her hair.

"Well, they saved her," Forge said. "Or more to the point, Logan saved her. Unfortunately, zapping the Professor didn't work - Jean's doing some telepathy thing with him at the moment. She actually ended up fixed Cerebro and using it herself to find Rogue."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Gambit asked.

"Yeah," Forge drawled. "Let's just we have a lot less pain killers today."

Gambit snorted, his eyes still on Rogue who - much to his surprise - growled at Kitty.

"Anyway, if I understand correctly, they weren't actually able to get to Rogue until after the machine had powered up. They stopped it, but Rogue was unconscious or something and Logan touched her and let her absorb his healing factor to save her," Forge went on. "She's been acting very... Logan-like all morning."

"Yeah?" asked Gambit. "Is that why she's growling?"

"And calling people 'bub'," Forge went on. "And hankering for cigars and beer."

Gambit laughed.

"How does that work?" asked Gambit. "Why would she act like him as well? And where'd the white streak come from?"

"Side-effect of the machine I think," Forge replied. "Kind of wish I had the specs for it."

"Of course you do."

"Anyway, apparently this life force absorbing she does also give her an imprint of her victim's personality."

"Weird."

"But funny," Forge said, grinning. "I plan on following her around and watching all the Logan-esque things she does. She flirted with Jean earlier."

Gambit cracked up laughing.

"Man, I wish I'd seen that," Gambit said.

"Maybe she'll do it again later," Forge said hopefully. "In the meantime, we get to watch her freak her new friends out."

"Best entertainment we've had in years. Say, where's Logan anyway?"

"Recovering in the med lab. He's comatose and injured."

Gambit and Forge effectively stalked Rogue for the next day or two, amusing themselves with her Logan-esque behaviour. Something that got Gambit's attention, however, were the nightmares that followed, even after his personality wore off.

Then Logan finally woke up and after a discussion with the fully-recovered Professor Xavier, Logan left. He was stopped briefly by Rogue and Gambit nudged Forge.

"See that adoring look?" Gambit said. "I think our fille has a little crush."

"I don't want you to go," Rogue told Logan.

Gambit and Forge "aww"ed and then snickered when Logan gave Rogue his dog tag. They followed Logan out as he departed and Gambit cheered when Logan took Scott's motorcycle.

"Of course you approve," Forge said with a sigh.

"Naturally," Gambit said cheerfully. "Logan not only stole a motorcycle, he stole _Scott's_ motorcycle. I love this guy. He reminds me of me."

Forge groaned.

"Not nearly as good looking though," Gambit added.

* * *

"Still having nightmares, Rogue?" asked the Professor.

Rogue nodded, looking tired and miserable. The Professor nodded slowly.

"Ultimately, I believe the wall I taught you to make to block your voices will also stop you from reliving their memories in your sleep," he said. "However, while you're still learning and mastering the wall, you may ask Jean for sleeping tablets."

"Thank you," she replied quietly and began to stand.

"Rogue," the Professor said patiently, before she could depart. "You will get the hang of it. I know Logan and Erik's memories can't be easy to live with, but you can overcome this."

Gambit stayed in the Professor's office long after Rogue had left, mulling over their conversation. Finally he got up and went looking for Forge.

"I've been thinking -" he began.

"Did it hurt?" asked Forge automatically.

"- about Rogue's ability. She gets memories as well, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So, you know how sometimes I can touch things when I do a full-ball charge?"

"You _think_ you can touch things," Forge said. "You fall asleep almost straight away and the moment doesn't even last that long."

"Hey, I know what I feel, all right."

"Uh huh."

"Humour me. I can touch things. So what if I started using my daily charge on Rogue? You know, touch her skin and get her to absorb me?" Gambit asked. "Okay, she had to make sustained contact with Logan both times to get anything substantial, but would lots and lots of small doses do the same thing?"

Forge pondered in silence for a moment. He shrugged.

"I have absolutely no idea," Forge said finally. "I guess, since you're so convinced you can touch her it doesn't hurt to try. Let's just not get our hopes up. With the kind of small doses you're talking about it could take ages before we see any results."

"Ahh," Gambit said, tapping his nose. "But there's also the fact that the Professor occasionally goes inside her head."

"True," Forge said. "Although once she's settled in, that may not happen as often."

"If I zap her right before a session with just the right message, maybe he'll pick it up," Gambit said. "I'm thinking I should concentrate on your transporter and think 'reset'."

Forge nodded.

"It's not like we've got any better ideas at the moment," Forge said. "It's worth a try."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

If Rogue had noticed a pattern in the zappings, she hadn't mentioned it to any one. Gambit had pretty much taken to stalking Rogue about the mansion and would zap her if she was about to meet with the Professor, and if such a meeting didn't take place that day, he would zap her just before she went to bed. His logic for the second was both because it made sure he used his daily charge, and because he was hoping her subconscious would be able to make sense of... whatever she might be getting from him.

Forge had made up 'comm badges' for them so that Gambit could alert him when Rogue went into a session with the Professor. It wasn't enough to just zap Rogue and hope; the only way they could find out if it was having any kind of impact was if they observed her. [1]

So they watched and waited, even Forge - despite his doubts - ever hopeful for even the smallest sign that something was getting through. So far they hadn't seen a thing, but the men reminded themselves that it was still early days and there might not be enough of Gambit in her head yet.

Inevitably they got caught up in her life.

"How's it going?" Forge asked, joining Gambit as he was following Rogue and Bobby, hand in hand, back inside the mansion.

"Bobby asked her out," Gambit reported.

"It's about time. He's only been drooling over her for weeks."

"Ha, yeah. Rogue's all 'Are you sure? Because you know we can't kiss or anything', and Bobby said he didn't care."

"That's nice," Forge replied. "They're too young for getting into that stuff anyway."

"Uh huh... so when was your first time, Forgey?" Gambit asked. "You dated Stormy for three years; you can't tell me you didn't do the deed at least once."

"I don't believe that's any of your business."

"The point is," Gambit said with a smirk, "you're twenty. These two are seventeen. I think that's a little hypocritical. Of course, it would have been worse coming from me: Let's just say I was even younger than them."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Forge asked, shaking his head.

"Anyway," Gambit went on as they stepped back inside, "I think it's great that Roguey's found someone who can look past her mutation. Must be love, hein?"

"You go on that much about sex, I'm surprised you even know love exists," Forge replied.

"I was in love once... I think."

"You think?"

"Well, I was a teenager at the time," Gambit replied cheerfully. "I thought I was in love. Of course, in hindsight I'm not so sure, but you get that. That's the fun of being a teenager, right? Every crush is love."

Forge laughed and then added soberly: "I'm pretty sure 'Ro and I were in love."

"I should hope so," Gambit replied. "Seeing as how you were thinking of proposing and all."

"I think that's the first thing I'm going to say to 'Ro when we get out of here," Forge said. "Finally pop the question."

"Took you long enough," Gambit joked. "You know, I think Stormy might have a few things to say about you running away from commitment."

"Oh very funny."

"If you did not want to marry me, you should have just said so instead of trapping yourself in an alternate dimension for ten years," Gambit said, mimicking Storm's way of speaking.

"Do you think she'll say 'yes'?" Forge asked.

"Hmm?"

"After all this time, do you think she would say 'yes'?"

"I think she would first need to get over the shock that we're still alive," Gambit pointed out. "I have no idea what she would say. She hasn't dated anyone else in all this time so... never know."

"I can't believe we're talking like this," said Forge. "Actually making plans for getting out of here."

"You still don't think I can touch Rogue?" Gambit asked.

"I'm up in the air over whether Rogue can absorb you or not in the time available," Forge corrected. "I don't believe you can know for sure that you can touch anything."

"Well, you said so yourself, if could be awhile before there's enough of me in her..." Gambit took a moment to grin at his suggestion.

Forge groaned. "Is sex all you can think about?"

"I've told you before," Gambit corrected. "Stealing is better than sex. Not saying that sex isn't still awesome, but given the choice between sex with a random woman and breaking into Fort Knox, I'd break in Fort Knox."

"What if it was sex with the woman of your dreams?" asked Forge with a grin.

"The woman of my dreams would be breaking into Fort Knox with me."

"I should have seen that one coming."

"And afterwards we would celebrate our victory by having sex."

"If you weren't the only one here to talk to, Remy," said Forge, "I'd just stop talking to you all together."

* * *

Gambit watched Rogue and Bobby in amusement as Bobby attempted to lean in to kiss Rogue, while she was more inclined to move her head back.

"I don't want to hurt you," she said softly.

"I'm not afraid," Bobby replied.

"That's the spirit, Bobby," Gambit encouraged him as Bobby made another attempt to kiss Rogue. "Go for it!"

Rogue turned her head at the sound of a motorcycle, then grinned eagerly at Bobby and bounded off.

"So close," Gambit muttered as he followed her. "Hi Logan. How'd it go? Find what you were looking for?"

"You miss me, kid?" Logan asked Rogue as he pulled away from the half hug.

"Not really," Rogue joked.

"Quick Bobby," Gambit said gleefully as Bobby entered the room. "Move in before her little crush on Logan reignites."

Gambit then started laughing when Bobby's idea of a handshake was to ice his hand over.

"I think he's noticed your little crush, Roguey," Gambit said.

"Boyfriend?" Logan repeated. "So how do you guys...?"

"We're still working on that," Bobby replied.

Gambit snickered.

"Look who's come back," said Storm as she came down the stairs. "Just in time."

"For what?" Logan asked.

"We need a baby sitter."

"Stormy," Gambit said. "I love you. You've reduced Logan to 'baby-sitter'."

* * *

That evening, instead of going to bed straight away, Rogue stayed up with a book. One of those adventure/romances she liked to read. Sometimes Gambit would read with her, just for something to do, but overall he wasn't really interested in that kind of thing.

Eventually Rogue seemed to realise the time and finally put her book down. She'd turned off the light and Gambit was just starting to build up the charge to zap her with when he was interrupted by one of Tracy's ear-piercing screams. Rogue's eyes flew open as she jumped and Gambit reabsorbed his charge.

The second Tracy's scream was cut off, Rogue realised that there were feet outside her bedroom door. With no time left to think she rolled off the bed away from the door and only just managed to get in underneath before the first solider stepped into the room. She winced at the sound of something whizzing through the air, but at the same time relieved they weren't shooting at her. The men left almost immediately, and Rogue allowed herself a sigh of relief.

She waited until she was sure they were gone, then pulled herself out from under the bed and ran to Jubilee's side. She reefed out the three darts in her neck, but carefully - she didn't want to accidentally touch her skin. Then she really would be out of the count.

"C'mon, c'mon, wake up," she urged Jubilee, shaking her urgently through the bed covers.

"I don't think she's going to wake up, Roguey," Gambit said. "You'd better get out while you can."

Evidentially, Rogue thought the same thing because she headed to the door. Cautiously she opened it and when she didn't see anyone she ran out. She raced down the hall just in time to hear Bobby call her name.

"Bobby!" she exclaimed, running around the corner and coming face to face with Bobby and John. "This way."

She began to run back to her room in the hope that the boys could help her get Jubilee out. Unfortunately, another team of the invaders chose that moment to blow the hallway window open. Rogue screamed as glass shattered everywhere and all three ducked.

"Haven't we had enough screaming for one night?" Gambit muttered.

This new batch of invaders effectively cut Rogue, Bobby and John off from being able to go after Jubilee. They ran and Gambit ran with them. They reached the first floor and Gambit raised his eyebrows at the sight of all the bodies on the ground. If he was a betting man - which he was - he'd say Logan had been busy.

They made it to the front doors, which opened and Gambit groaned as the torches shone in their faces. Then they heard a cry and Logan jumped down from the balcony, taking out the four solders in the process.

"A for timing," Gambit said. "B for style. You really need to work on that, but I'll give you an A for effort, no?"

The sound of a helicopter and its light came through the front door. With that exit blocked off, Logan directed them bad down the hall and Bobby opened up the secret passage. He, John and Rogue got in, but Logan closed it after them, much to Rogue's objection.

"You didn't seriously except him to hang around, did you, cherie?" Gambit drawled. "Let's see... Roguey or fight scene?"

There was only a moment's hesitation before Gambit went back after Logan. Rogue, after all, would be heading off the premises, and he couldn't follow her that way. He may as well get the most of the fight scene. At the same time that Logan was yelling at the soldiers to shoot him, Gambit spotted Forge.

"Nice night for an invasion, huh?" Forge said dryly.

Gambit was about to reply when he heard a familiar voice, and he turned to look at the figure which emerged from the shadows.

"Wolverine. Well, I must admit this was certainly the last place I'd expect to find you. How long has it been? Fifteen years? You haven't changed one bit. Me on the other hand," Stryker said, touching his face as he came into the light. "Nature."

"Hey! Hey I know him!" Gambit exclaimed. "Why that filthy, sadistic –"

Forge's eyebrows raised right into his hairline as Gambit spouted out a nasty description of the man before him in both English and French and proceeded to inform 'Stryker' that he was lucky he couldn't touch him right now because he'd kill him. Forge thought he had seen Gambit angry before. Apparently he had been holding back.

Forge had heard of Stryker before. Many of The Professor's original students had been held captive by him. In fact, Stryker's son, Jason, had even spent a couple of years at Xavier's before Gambit had ever arrived. An illusionist, if Forge recalled correctly, with one green eye and one blue.

Then a wall of ice formed between Stryker and Logan, and Forge looked back to see Rogue, Bobby and John peering out from secret passage. Gambit's tirade came to an end, although his hands were clenched in rage.

"No! No!" Logan yelled.

"Logan, come on, let's go," said Rogue.

"Logan," Bobby said when Logan didn't answer at first.

"Go, I'll be fine," Logan said with a glance back at them.

"But we won't," Rogue replied.

There was another pause, but finally Logan started walking away from the ice.

"Go," he said as he joined them in the secret passage. "Keep going."

Forge and Gambit followed. Forge glanced at Gambit.

"Is it just me," Gambit asked, "or did Rogue just manipulate Logan?"

"Uhh, well, sure sounded like it to me," Forge replied, a little nervously as they followed the four out to the garage. "Bit of a softie, isn't he?"

"Hmph," Gambit snorted. "Maybe that's the real reason why that scumwad is still alive even after Logan told me he was going to _kill him_, fifteen years ago."

"Oookay..."

"Never killed Stryker. Never skill Victor. Does this guy _ever_ kill anyone?"

"Oh sure," Forge said. "He was killing invaders left right and centre before."

"Lackeys don't count."

"Uhh... right. Hey look, Remy," Forge said. "They're using - umm, I mean _stealing_ - Scott's car."

"You'd think," Gambit went on, caught up in his rant, "with all that destruction at Three Mile Island he would have succeeded in offing Stryker, but ooooh noooo -"

"See? Logan's even _hotwiring_ Scott's car," Forge said, pointing.

Gambit twitched.

"Hotwiring," Forge repeated for good measure.

"Well," Gambit said stiffly as the car started out the doors, "at least he can do something right."

* * *

"I don't get it," Gambit said, half an hour later inside of Cerebro. "Sedating the kids I can understand – clearly Stryker has nothing better to do than to torture mutants in the name of science – but why in the world is he pulling Cerebro apart?"

"Well," Forge said slowly as he inspected their work. "If I took what they're taking, I would make... my own Cerebro?"

"You sound uncertain," Gambit said.

"Cerebro does require a telepath," Forge pointed out. "Specifically, it requires a high level telepath like Professor Xavier."

"He was visiting Magneto today," Gambit said thoughtfully. "You think they got to him too?"

"Maybe. I'd like to know how he found out about Cerebro though," Forge said. "They knew it was here, how to get to it, and how to pull it apart. If I recall correctly, I believe Magneto helped the Professor to build it. What do you think about Magneto and Stryker working together?"

"Highly unlikely," Gambit replied. "They're polar opposites. Magneto is for mutant superiority. Stryker is for human superiority. If Magneto is how Stryker found out about Cerebro then he probably tortured the information out of him."

"You throw that word out a lot –"

"I was abducted by him when I was fourteen," Gambit snapped. "I was stuck in that hellhole for two years being experimented on like some kind of lab rat. Hell, lab rats probably got better treatment."

"Okay, forget I said anything."

* * *

Eventually Stryker's people cleared out and Xavier's was eerily quiet. The only sound came from the main television which was still on the National Geographic channel.

Forge was relieved that no one had gone anywhere near his lab. He didn't like to think what they might have done with his inventions. Still it did add to the theory about Stryker getting his information from Magneto: Forge hadn't arrived at the Institute until after the Professor and Magneto had their falling out, so Magneto had never learned about him. At least not as far as he knew.

Once Gambit had finally calmed down, he started prowling the mansion, making note of all their points of entry and looking for anything else they might have stolen. From time to time over the years he had often told Forge how bad the security in this place was and what he would do if he had a chance to fix things. Gambit had mixed feelings: smug he was right about all the weak points in the security he'd picked out years ago, and regretful that their security hadn't been better than he thought. He would have preferred for everyone to have been safe.

Xavier's stayed empty for a full twenty-four hours. It wasn't until very early the following morning that people started returning. The first person to return was Kitty, who did a quick survey before leaving and returning with the rest of the group she had escaped with.

The older students took the initiative. Some cleaned up or blocked off access to the worst of the damage. Others distracted the younger students with games. Breakfast was carefully retrieved from the kitchen.

They had only been there a couple of hours when something very strange happened. Every single student started clutching their heads, some whimpering, crying and writhing on the ground with the pain.

"What in the world?" Gambit said.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Forge replied.

There was nothing they could do but watch helplessly, even if they had known what was going on. Then, just as quickly as it started, it stopped. Most were able to get up straight away although some of the younger ones needed some recovery time.

"Is it them coming back, do you think?" asked Kitty.

"If it is," replied Piotr, "then I wonder why they didn't just come in with guns blazing again."

For lack of any better ideas, they decided to move down into the lower levels of the mansion, where they felt they would be safest. Half an hour later, the Blackbird returned with the Professor, Scott, Storm, Logan, Rogue, Bobby, a blue furry mutant Gambit and Forge didn't recognise, and all the students that Stryker had abducted.

The group had a quiet word with the older students, letting them know that Jean had died and John had left. They dropped off their younger passengers, changed into X-men uniforms and departed.

Reassured that they were safe, the students emerged from the lower levels. The television was put on just in time to see the President's address about what had happened, although it lost the feed at first. The team returned again not long thereafter. The blue furry mutant was introduced as Kurt Wagner.

That evening, Gambit followed Rogue to bed. He laid down next to her – in a manner of speaking, as he couldn't actually feel the bed at all, let alone get into it – and waited for her to settle. He checked the power amplifier was on and lined up his finger with her cheek.

"I'm glad you're all right, cherie," he said softly. "And not just because I'm counting on you to get me out of here."

He charged up the air under his finger as high as he could get it and let it explode. As usual, the effort instantly exhausted him, and he slipped off into dream land.

Rogue rubbed her cheek. It was funny; she had rather gotten used to getting these shocks of static ever since... well, almost every day since she'd been here. She hadn't gotten one at Bobby's place though. She sighed and drifted off to sleep as well, wondering what the cause was.

* * *

"Can't believe Jean's dead," said Forge the next day as he watched the proper clean up of the damage.

"Yeah," Gambit agreed. "No wonder Ol' One-Eye is so depressed. I didn't even realise he was capable of an emotion other than self-righteousness."

Forge snorted, and then shook his head.

"It's not really a laughing matter," Forge said reproachfully.

"Hey, you either laugh or you cry, right?" Gambit replied loftily. "So, we going to be able to do anything with Kurt's teleportation?"

"Same problem as last time," Forge replied. "Teleportation's instantaneous, so there's no way to tell if he passes through this dimension or not.

* * *

"Ahh, Storm," said the Professor as he moved up along side her in the hall. "I've just gotten work from Hank."

"Hank McCoy?" Storm asked. "It has certainly been awhile since we last heard from him! What's he up to these days?"

"He's just been appointed Secretary of Mutant Affairs," the Professor replied, sounding well pleased.

"Really? That is excellent news," Storm replied. "Good for Hank. And it is good to see that politicians can keep their promises occasionally."

"Indeed."

* * *

Gambit sat by Rogue in the computer lab and raised his eyebrows as she logged in under John's username.

"Chere," he said, "I didn't realise you were that kind of fille."

He watched as Rogue went through John's personal files and found a folder labelled "Stories". She opened it and found quite a collection of word documents. Gambit remembered that John liked to spend a lot of time in the computer lab, always typing something. He'd never been curious enough to find out what he'd been typing though.

Rogue opened up the first file and Gambit read with her. This first story wasn't finished, but Gambit got far enough to understand what John had been doing in his spare time: writing romance stories. He laughed to himself. He never would have picked John to be into that kind of thing.

Rogue didn't open up any more. Instead she copied the whole folder to a zip file, and then copied it to disk. Later, Gambit would see her email a copy of that folder to one of John's outside email addresses. He would also read the other stories with Rogue and discover John's love of writing erotic scenes.

* * *

A couple of months later, Logan found a classic Harley motorcycle in the back of the garage. It was at least twenty-five years old, by his reckoning, and had spent a lot of years in this back room. A shame really; Logan could see that it had been a really beautiful bike once. He wouldn't mind turning it into one again, actually.

Logan cleared away some of the junk surrounding it, and at the same time looked for any keys that might fit it. He got so caught up in his work that he quite lost track of time.

"Logan?" inquired Storm as she stepped into the garage.

"Huh? Oh, hi 'Ro," Logan replied, standing up and brushing off his hands.

"We missed you at dinner," she said.

"Is it that time already?" Logan asked in surprise as he looked around for a clock. "Huh. You wouldn't happen to know who has the keys to this bike, would you?"

Storm took a few steps to the side so she could see better into the back room and pursed her lips.

"I imagine," she said tersely, "that Remy had the keys on him when he disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Logan asked.

"Yes. He and..." Storm paused, swallowed hard and then continued: "He and my boyfriend, Forge, disappeared without a trace ten years... no, eleven years ago. I would _appreciate_ it, if you left it alone."

Logan was about to reply when he heard the crash of dry lightning outside. He nodded slowly. It was a shame to leave such a fine motorcycle in such conditions, but if it upset Storm that much...

"All right," Logan conceded. "I'll uhh, just wash up."

Storm gave him a nod and strode from the room.

* * *

**AN:**

[1] Technobabble: Comm badge, short for "Communications badge". It's the future generation of mobile phone: one button, voice address system and tracking system. Well, except that Forge hasn't got the tracking part working on these versions as we'll find out later, but that's not the point.**  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Are you okay?" Bobby asked as the elevator opened.

"I'm fine," Rogue replied in that tone of voice that said she was definitely not fine.

"Well, you don't seem fine. You seem like you're avoiding me," Bobby pressed as he followed her out of the elevator and down the hall. "I mean, something's wrong."

"What's wrong is that I can't touch my boyfriend without killing him," Rogue retorted, "other than that I'm wonderful."

"Hey," Bobby said as he took her wrist and pulled her around to look at him. "I don't think that's fair. Have I ever put any pressure on you?"

"You're a guy, Bobby," Rogue replied. "Your mind's only on one thing."

Bobby could do nothing but stare after Rogue as she stalked off. Gambit snickered to himself as he followed her. He didn't think that Rogue appreciated seeing Bobby and Kitty in arms embrace in the danger room just a few minutes ago. He wondered how this was going to play out. Then he started wondering when life at Xaviers had turned into a soap opera.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen," said the image of Warren Worthington on the television as he held up a vial. "I proudly present the answer to mutation. Finally, we have a cure."

The colour drained from Gambit's face as he looked at Rogue's. He knew everyone looked at her as she got up and left the rec room. He swore under his breath as he followed her to the Professor's office. The Professor was there, with Storm, Logan and Hank (although it took Gambit a minute to recognise him under all the new blue fur). Forge was in there as well, and he looked up as Gambit and Rogue entered.

"Is it true?" Rogue asked hopefully. "They can cure us?"

"Yes Rogue," the Professor replied seriously. "It appears to be true."

There was an odd silence.

"No Professor," said Storm. "They can't cure us. Want to know why?"

Rogue looked up as Storm stood and walked over to her.

"Because there's nothing to cure. There's nothing wrong with you," Storm said and looked around at all of them. "Or any of us for that matter."

* * *

"You can't really blame her," Forge said to Gambit a little later. "She can't touch anyone. She can't even touch her own boyfriend."

"I know that!" Gambit snapped. "That's not the point."

"It is the point, for Rogue any way."

"Stormy's right, you know. There is nothing wrong with us. This whole cure thing is probably just a huge hoax -"

"Remy, stop pretending like you're not more upset about your plan to use Rogue falling through," Forge said. "It didn't look like it was even working anyway. It's been what? A year? A whole year since you started trying to get her to absorb you, and have we seen a single sign that it's worked even a little? No. Deal with it. I think Rogue's entitled to a little -"

"I'm surprised at you, Forge," Gambit interrupted. "You can't honestly expect me to believe that you actually agree that mutation is a disease –"

"I didn't say that," Forge objected. "But this 'cure' suppresses the mutant gene permanently. Regardless of what they're calling it, this could be just what Rogue needs to have a normal life –"

"Normal is overrated."

"Hell, you're the most selfish person I have ever met!" Forge yelled at him. "I haven't been able to speak to - let alone touch - the woman I love for eleven years. You don't see me begrudging Rogue this opportunity. But then I can't expect you to understand, can I? You don't have anyone! You don't care about anyone except yourself!"

Gambit punched Forge across the face and as Forge was reeling from the impact, Gambit grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"I got kicked out of my home, exiled from New Orleans, and forbidden contact with my family when I was eighteen years old," Gambit practically snarled. "Why? Because _one man_ didn't want me to marry his sister. I wanted to. She wanted to. Our parents and my brother and our friends all wanted us to get married. Just one man couldn't accept it. I haven't spoken to any of them in sixteen years on pain of death. Don't you dare tell me I can't understand or that what you're dealing with is worse than what I am. I was dealing with it long before we ever met!"

* * *

Gambit sat on the roof and looked out on the panoramic view of the mansion. His mind, however, was not on the view, but on what had transpired that day. He reluctantly admitted that if someone offered him the opportunity to go back home and be reunited with his family, he'd take it up in a heartbeat. So was Forge right? Was he upset about the idea that Rogue might get the 'cure' for her sake or for his?

He didn't know. He just didn't know.

* * *

Gambit and Forge stood in the med lab. After everyone at Xaviers reacted to something they could only assume was telepathic in nature, Logan and Storm had taken off in the Blackbird. They were back now and had brought with them an unexpected guest: Jean.

"I thought she was dead," said Forge.

"Apparently not," Gambit drawled.

They sat in with Logan as the Professor explain his theory about Jean being kept alive through a telekinetic cocoon, and then dropped the additional bombshells about her being a class five with a dual personality.

"And I thought I had problems," Gambit said.

Forge snickered.

"Hey, Remy," Forge said as the Professor telepathically worked on Jean, "what do you think about zapping Jean?"

"You think as a class five she might pick us up?" asked Gambit dubiously.

"Worth a try, don't you think?"

Gambit considered and studied Jean thoughtfully.

"Let's see how this goes first," Gambit said finally. "If I'm understanding what the Professor said about the dual personality thing correctly, it's not actually Jean who will be hearing. It'll be this Phoenix character. While I'm sure that Jean would help us if she could hear us, we don't really know anything about Phoenix. It might be better to wait and see what happens."

"Makes sense, I guess," Forge reluctantly agreed. "You sure you're not just saying that because you want Rogue to be the one to save us?"

"What would be the point in that, mon ami?" asked Gambit. "If she gets the 'cure', she's not going to be able to help us any more, assuming she was even getting our message in the first place."

"True," Forge conceded and then sighed. "I really don't want to go back to the drawing board."

"Neither do I."

* * *

An hour later:

"I don't think we should be watching this," said Forge as Logan and Jean began to make out in the med lab.

"So leave," Gambit replied nonchalantly.

"How can you just be so casual about it?" Forge asked.

"Clearly you've never been to the right parties," Gambit said. "This is nothing. They're both still fully-clothed for one thing. Why Jean! I never would have picked you for the type to dig your nails in. Go Logan."

Forge shook his head in disgust.

"I really think we should leave," Forge said. "This isn't -"

"Wait," said Logan, starting to get up.

"No," Jean replied.

Logan's belt flew off.

"Oh we can't leave now," Gambit said as Logan climbed off the bed. "This just got real interesting."

Forge sighed, but figured as they were talking and not making out any more, he'd hang around.

"Where's Scott?" asked Logan.

Gambit and Forge looked at each other in the silence that followed.

"Jean?" Logan pressed.

"Where am I?" asked Jean.

"Why do I have the feeling," Gambit said, "that my decision not to zap Jean earlier is about to be vindicated?"

"Yeah," Forge said as Logan pulled out Scott's glasses and showed them to Jean. "I was just thinking the same thing."

The room began to rattle.

"Look at me," said Logan, holding Jean's face in his hands.

Forge gave a low whistle at all the machines going haywire.

"Focus, focus Jean," Logan insisted.

"Kill me," pleaded Jean, her eyes welling up with tears.

"What?"

"Kill me. Kill me before I kill someone else."

"If she killed Scott..." Forge said slowly.

"The rest of us are doomed?" Gambit suggested. "Although, I can't really blame her. Scott was pretty annoying."

"Remy," Forge admonished.

"What? I make inappropriate jokes all the time. You should know this by now."

"The Professor can help," Logan told Jean. "He can fix it."

"I don't want to fix it," Jean replied darkly.

Gambit and Forge looked at each other. The next thing they knew, Logan was flung against the wall, and with the world rattling around her, Jean left.

The Professor and Storm arrived just as Logan returned to consciousness. The three left to go after Jean.

Storm and Logan arrived back a little over an hour later with an empty wheelchair in tow.

* * *

Gambit and Forge stood and looked on as Storm spoke at Professor Xavier's memorial. They listened respectfully and quietly. Gambit did happen to notice Bobby holding Kitty's hand though and he hoped Rogue wouldn't notice too. She hadn't left yet, which tended to suggest that Storm's words has some impact on her, He could handle indecision.

The service came to a close and people slowly began to stand. Conversation was soft, stilted and almost reluctant to start.

"I can't believe he's gone," Forge said. "Heck I can't believe Jean even came back from the dead. Remy?"

"Oui?"

"Do you think any of this is really happening? Or have we just been stuck here for so long we're starting to imagine things?"

"Nah," Gambit replied. "If this is our imaginations, I'm sure we can come up with something a lot more fun than people dying. Now, the day that the mansion is overrun with half-naked Amazonian women, _then_ we'll have a case. Just as long has they have both boobs, I'll be happy. Concerned with my mental state, but happy."

"Why wouldn't they have both breasts?" asked Forge, looking confused.

"That's what 'Amazon' means," Gambit replied cheerfully. "'Without breast'. According to Greek myth, the Amazons used to destroy their right breast so they could shoot arrows and use spears better. Of course, they're never actually portrayed with only one boob, but then I guess men in general don't want one-breasted women."

"Ooookay then," Forge said. "I had no idea you were into Greek mythology."

"I'm not," Gambit replied. "Roguey did a paper on them for History."

"Ahh."

"Stormy liked it."

"Somehow that doesn't really surprise me."

* * *

Gambit stood beside Rogue as she looked out through her bedroom window at Bobby and Kitty on the newly frozen over fountain.

"Chere," Gambit said, "Bobby knew you were untouchable well before you started dating. If he had a problem with it, he wouldn't have asked you out in the first place."

He watched her face as she visibly grew more and more upset. Finally she moved away from the window and pulled out her bag.

"Merde. Rogue, come on," he pleaded, knowing full well she wouldn't hear a word he said. "If you're going to do this, at the very least don't do it because your boyfriend's straying. Your mutation is not responsible for the faithlessness of others, Rogue. It might be used as an excuse, but at the end of the day it's Bobby's decision whether he's up front with you, or goes behind your back."

Gambit followed Rogue as she zipped up her bag, left her room and strode purposely down the hall.

"Need a lift, kid?" Logan asked as Rogue passed by him

"No," Rogue replied shortly as she turned to face him.

"Where are you going?"

"Talk her out of it," Gambit insisted.

Rogue paused and then said: "You don't know what it's like to be afraid of your powers. Be afraid to get close to anybody."

"Yeah. I do."

"I want to be able to touch people, Logan. A hug. A handshake. A kiss."

"I hope you're not doing this for some boy."

"Oh, she is all right," Gambit muttered as Rogue looked away and Logan stepped closer.

"Look," Logan said. "If you want to go, then go. Just be sure it's what you want."

"Thank you!" Gambit exclaimed.

"Shouldn't you be telling me to stay? To go upstairs and unpack?" Rogue asked.

"I'm not your father, I'm your friend," Logan replied. "Think about what I said, Rogue."

"Marie," Rogue corrected quietly and Gambit swore under his breath.

"Marie," Logan said.

Rogue watched Logan leave and the opened up the front door. Gambit zipped out with her and quickly built up a charge to zap her with, which he let go as she closed the door behind her. Regardless of whether he was upset for her, or upset for him, this was his last chance to get a message through, unless she changed her mind before getting the 'cure'.

As Gambit slipped into sleep, Rogue rubbed the back of her neck. It was a little early in the evening for that. Maybe one day she'd find out what was causing it.

* * *

At precisely 4:00pm the following day, Gambit gave Hank a zapping. It was only a light zap, and it was nice not to fall instantly into dream land like he had every time he had been zapping Rogue full-charge for the last year or so. Gambit and Forge grinned at each other as Hank rubbed his arm. They hadn't been able to resist the urge to zap Hank again for old time's sake.

"I wonder if he'll remember," Forge said. "It's been a few years."

They looked at him patiently, but if Hank did remember, he gave no indication.

"Forge, I think he's forgotten us," Gambit said.

"Looks like it huh?" Forge said. "I think we should be hurt."

"Deeply hurt," Gambit agreed. "I think I should zap him at 4 again tomorrow if he's still here."

"Absolutely."

* * *

Gambit and Forge were able to piece together the battle at Alcatraz from both news sources and from the team of Logan, Storm, Hank, Bobby, Kitty and Piotr who defended the site from Magneto and his forces. With them upon their return was a young boy, Jimmy, who had some power-neutralising mutation and was apparently the source of the 'cure'.

"They're using a mutant to cure mutation," Gambit said, giving Forge a pointed look. "Ironic, no?"

Forge just shrugged. "Bio-chemistry isn't my forte."

"I also find it amusing that Warren Worthington's own mutant son didn't want to be 'cured'."

"Are you trying to make a point, Remy?"

"I should think those two points speak for themselves."

They also learned of the one-woman slaughter instigated by Jean, and how she had been killed by Logan.

"Jean's dead again," Gambit said. "Well, that was a short-lived resurrection."

"That was the worst pun ever," said Forge.

* * *

"Rogue," Storm greeted as the young woman made her way to the doors.

Rogue caught Storm's eyes and hesitated a moment before she drew herself up tall.

"I'd like to finish my final year, if I'm still welcome," Rogue said determinedly.

"Of course you are still welcome," Storm replied firmly and – intent on making a point – added: "Besides, regardless of whether you have powers or not, you are still a mutant. No so-called 'cure' can change that."

* * *

The student body had increased to seventy students. The teaching staff had decreased to two: Storm and Logan. Hank was now the United States Representative to the United Nations. The Professor, Jean and Scott were dead. Storm put out an urgent call for teachers, but she couldn't wait. There were three months left of the school year and she needed an answer now.

It was her four senior-most students who stepped up to the plate. Rogue, Bobby, Kitty and Piotr surprised Storm with an unexpected meeting.

"We know we haven't really finished school ourselves," said Bobby. "But we're all done pretty well in our classes, and don't they say that the best way to learn is to teach?"

"You still have all your final exams coming up," Storm pointed out.

"Doesn't need to be just us," said Rogue. "Doesn't even need to be conventional classes. We can all teach each other, even the younger ones."

"We already know who the best kids at maths and English and everything are," Kitty added. "We can put everyone into little groups with mixed levels of competency and those who understand can help the ones who don't and if no one understands then they can come ask one of us."

"We've got all the work books and resources and everything," Piotr added.

Storm looked at them and let out a long, slow breath.

"All right," she agreed. "All right, let's see how it goes."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Although Gambit no longer had a legitimate reason to hang around Rogue any more now that she had been 'cured', he did so any way. He'd gotten used to it, he liked Rogue, and he literally had nothing better to do.

Still, at night when she went to bed, instead of zapping her like he usually did, Gambit would join Forge in the rec room and watch TV with Jones.

"Anything good on tonight?" asked Gambit.

"Yep," Forge replied. "They're playing the _Original Series_ on the Sci-Fi channel. Unfortunately, Jones doesn't like _Star Trek_."

"Hmph. Kids these days have no taste," Gambit said.

"So we're watching _Swordfish_ instead."

"Eh, mediocre movie."

"I hate this movie," Forge admitted. "The storyline's great but all the swearing ruins it."

"The swearing doesn't really bother me," Gambit said.

"Well, that doesn't surprise me," Forge said with a snort. "I've heard some of the things that come out of your mouth."

"My mouth's a lot cleaner than it used to be," Gambit teased him.

"You have no idea how much that statement scares me."

"You must scare easily then, Forge. I know people who swear every second word."

"That says a lot about their vocabulary, doesn't it?"

Gambit chuckled. They watched in silence for a time.

"So, what's the latest on the Rogue/Bobby/Kitty love triangle?" asked Forge. "Also, I can't believe I just asked that."

"Yeah," Gambit said with a snicker. "We're turning into a pair of gossiping old women. Well, if Bobby and Kitty are still up to anything, they're being more discreet about it. Rogue and Bobby on the other hand... things between them have been stilted. Bobby feels guilty because he thinks that Rogue only got the 'cure' because of him and he won't be convinced otherwise no matter what Rogue says. Rogue's pretending like there's nothing wrong. They're both going through the motions and pretending like everything's okay, but in reality they're already over and they don't even know it yet."

"You sound pretty sure about that," said Forge.

"What can I say? They're a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off, and making things go boom is my specialty," Gambit joked.

Forge snickered.

"Say Remy," Forge said, studying the screen thoughtfully. "Do you think if you put Halle Berry in a white wig, she'd look like 'Ro?"

"Maybe," Gambit replied after a moment's consideration. "I always thought that Hugh Jackman looked like Logan."

"Yeah, he does, doesn't he?" Forge said. "Funny."

"Speaking of celebrity lookalikes," Gambit went on musingly. "I think if they were ever to make a movie of our lives, Professor Xavier would be played by Patrick Stewart."

Forge chuckled. "Yeah, they do look a lot alike, huh? Or... did anyway. Let's see, the movie of our lives... I think that Taylor Kitsch would play you."

"Taylor Kitsch?"

"Yeah, you know, the guy from _Friday Night Lights_."

"Yeah, I know who he is," Gambit dismissed with a wave of his hand. "He doesn't have the right eyes to play me."

"No one has the right eyes to play you," Forge replied. "They'd have to use contacts or CGI or something."

"Hmph. Knowing my luck they'd probably be cheap and just change his eye colour when he was using his powers. Worse, they'd probably just change the iris and not the sclera as well."

"I wonder who would play me?"

"Hey, you know who I think looks like Roguey?" Gambit asked. "Anna Paquin."

"Isn't she a blonde?" Forge asked.

"Only in that _True Blood_ show," Gambit replied. "Previously she was a brunette."

"Hmm. Hey, the guy who plays Jimmy Olsen in _Smallville_, Aaron Ashmore? He looks like Bobby. Of course, by default that also means his identical twin brother Shawn looks like Bobby too."

Gambit laughed.

* * *

To say that Storm was greatly relieved when quite a number of people applied for teaching positions would be putting it mildly. The small groups and having the students teaching each other worked well enough, but Storm hadn't been all together happy about having to resort to such measures long term. She was even also able to secure the services of a nurse, Annie Ghazikhanian.

Rogue picked up an apprenticeship at a local mechanic and helped Logan with the Institutes' vehicles in the spare time.

"Hey," Rogue asked Logan as she pointed to the back room. "You know anything about the old Harley in there?"

"Yeah," Logan said slowly. "It belonged to a friend of 'Ro's who disappeared a decade ago and she got a little upset when I talked about restoring it."

"Ahh," Rogue replied.

Still, that didn't really explain why it looked so familiar to her. She wasn't even at Xaviers back then.

* * *

Rogue was happy about being able to go back to touching people again. She still had her voices. She had thought when she first taken the cure that they had gone for good, however every now and then, especially when it was quiet, she could still hear them whispering.

"I don't care though," she told anyone who asked. "If the odd thought and the occasional dream is all the price I have to pay to touch again, it's worth it."

It happened on a midsummer night that Rogue ended up subject to one of these nightmares she had been prepared to deal with. Unable to get back to sleep, she headed downstairs to the kitchen, where she grabbed a drink out of the fridge and then headed into the rec room. She opened the lid as she sat down on the lounge with Jones. Gambit snickered as Forge moved to another seat, not wanting to be watching the TV through another person.

"Whatcha watching?" Rogue asked after a swig of her drink.

"_Payback_," Jones replied, looking at her curiously. "Are you supposed to have that?"

"Have what?" Rogue asked.

"Umm, the beer?" Jones said, pointing.

Rogue looked at the glass bottle in her hand, blinked and finally frowned in her confusion.

"Huh," she said. "I thought I got a soda."

"Funny tasting soda," Gambit said with a snicker.

"I guess I must have picked up one of Logan's by mistake," Rogue said thoughtfully, and then drank some more.

Jones stared at her. Rogue caught his gaze and looked back at him.

"What?" she demanded gruffly.

"Nothing," he replied, paused and then asked: "Can I have one too?"

"I don't think so, kid," Rogue replied. "I'll tell Logan in the morning I took one of his by mistake. I'm sure he'll tolerate it from me, but he sure won't tolerate it from you."

"I just love the way she has Logan wrapped around her little finger," Gambit said admiringly. "And look at her! Drinking that beer without a care. Our little girl's all growing up, Forgey."

"You are such an idiot," Forge replied.

Gambit chuckled.

"So, what was the nightmare about this time?" asked Jones.

"Getting my bones laced with adamantium."

"You seem to get that one a lot."

Rogue shrugged. Eventually _Payback_ came to an end and Jones went about flicking through the channel with but a blink of his eyes.

"Hey, hey," Rogue said. "Go back to that last one."

Jones flipped back to the Sci-Fi channel, on which an episode of _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine _was playing. Jones glanced at Rogue dubiously.

"You like _Star Trek_?" he asked.

Gambit and Forge looked at each other and grinned. Forge cheered silently.

"I don't know," Rogue replied cheerfully. "I've never watched it before."

"Oookay."

"Plus," Rogue went on, pointing to the young man on the screen, "that guy's cute."

"She thinks Jake Sisko is cute?" Gambit asked.

"Hey, I don't care," Forge said. "I don't even care that it's _Deep Space Nine_. We haven't gotten any _Trek_ in years."

"True."

Jones grumbled, but let her get away with it. It wasn't often he had company.

* * *

"You took my beer by mistake," Logan repeated.

"Yeah," Rogue replied, looking a little embarrassed. "I thought I was getting soda."

Logan gave her a long look, gestured for her to follow and made his way to the kitchen. Gambit followed as well with a big, silly grin on his face. Logan opened up the cupboard where the fizzy drinks were kept and then opened up the fridge and gestured to the bottom shelf where his beers were.

"You thought you were getting soda," Logan stated.

Gambit snickered. Rogue shook her head and sighed.

"I don't know," she said helplessly.

"Hmph. Well, 'Ro doesn't like me keeping my beer in here anyway. I'll find somewhere else to keep it," Logan said. "And kid? You owe me a beer."

Rogue nodded, a smile appearing on her face.

"I'll make sure you get it," she replied, let out a breath and then added. "I could really do with a cigarette."

Gambit raised his eyebrows and looked at Rogue curiously.

"Since when do you smoke?" Logan asked, giving her an odd look.

"Smoke?" Rogue repeated. "I don't smoke."

"Then why did you just say you could do with a cigarette?"

"I did?"

"Rogue, is this happening a lot? You doing things or saying things without knowing why?" Logan asked.

Rogue scratched her head.

"Maybe," she said finally. "I guess unless someone points it out to me I don't notice."

"Hmm. And we're fresh out of telepaths."

* * *

Much to Gambit and Forge's disappointment, neither Rogue nor Jones felt the need to watch _Star Trek_ again any time soon, and the summer came to a close. All the students who went home over the summer returned and some new students besides. Piotr returned from Russia and Kitty from visiting her family in Chicago.

Rogue continued to have little incidents as the time went past. Indeed, they seemed to increase with frequency. Most went unnoticed, and the rest were either politely ignored or made fun of depending on the company. Gambit watched these incidents with interest, barely daring to hope that there might be something of him in one of them. Unfortunately, all the things she did or said that could have belonged to him, could have well belonged to any of her other psyches as well. Still he did secretly hope the day might come where she would call Storm "Stormy".

The incident that really freaked Rogue out, however, was when she got caught checking out Kitty. Kitty and Rogue weren't exactly on the best of terms. Rogue pretty much ignored Kitty except when she couldn't get away with not talking to her at all, and even then, Rogue's sentences were clipped. So everyone noticed when Rogue's eyes ran over Kitty and different ones covered their mouths and started snickering.

"So, Kitty," Rogue drawled. "Wanna go catch a movie on Saturday?"

Kitty looked back at Rogue apprehensively. Kitty might have been inclined to think that Rogue wanted to fix their friendship if it wasn't for the smouldering look she was giving her.

"Umm," Kitty said awkwardly. "You want to see a movie?"

"Sure," Rogue replied cheerfully and slid her hand across the table to Kitty like nothing was the slightest bit amiss.

Gambit watched with much amusement.

"Ahh... are you umm, asking me out on a date?" Kitty asked, ignoring the snickering going on around them.

Rogue blinked. "Huh?"

"I mean," Kitty went on, unable to hide her smile, "I like you, Marie, and I really hate that we've been fighting, but I'm not interested in you, umm, like _that_."

Rogue stared, uncomprehending. Then; if she had been a cartoon, a light bulb would have lit up above her head:

"Omigod!" Rogue exclaimed, leaping up out of her chair, knocking it over in the process and backing off.

"Aww, why didn't you say 'yes' Kitty-cat?" asked Bobby with a silly grin on his face.

"I'm not gay!" Rogue and Kitty protested at the same time.

The two girls looked at each other. Bright red and humiliated, Rogue ran from the room. Gambit followed casually, already hearing everyone having a laugh about what had happened.

Rogue was shaking when she reached the safety of her private bedroom. What was going on? Why were her psyches doing this to her? When would it end?

"Too many men," she muttered to herself, holding her head. "I've got too many men in my head. If I had more women..."

Rogue sat down on her bed, pulled her legs up against her chest and buried her face in her knees. Gambit sat down beside her, wishing he could comfort her.

* * *

A couple of days later, Forge went looking for Gambit. Although Forge liked to tease Gambit about stalking Rogue, it usually made it easier to find him. That said, times like now, Forge really wanted to find a way to make tracking technology work – especially when Gambit was refusing to answer his comm badge.

The time confirmed that Rogue would be back from work by now. Rogue, however, was not in her usual haunts and it wasn't until he went via Bobby's room that he found him. Gambit's yelling was rather a big giveaway as to his location. Forge phased through the door and promptly yelled himself and covered his eyes.

"Remy! What the hell are you doing in here! Give them some privacy for goodness sake!" Forge exclaimed.

"I'm watching a fucking train wreck is what I'm doing –"

"I disapprove of your choice of words."

"I don't care!" Gambit yelled as Forge attempted to drag Gambit out of the room with his eyes closed. "They're idiots, both of them. Rogue's trying to prove that her psyches have no authority over her sexual preferences. They're both trying to save a relationship they've finally figured out is failing by having sex and clearly they've both been watching too many movies and TV because they're both a pair of incompetent little virgins who have no idea what the hell they're doing! You hear me, Drake! No idea!"

"No, Bobby can't hear you," Forge said as he finally got them both out of the room. "And that... You're disgusting, Remy."

"There should be a law against virgins deflowering each other," Gambit declared.

"Oh hell," Forge said with a groan. "You know, Remy, there are some people in this world who value saving themselves for the one they marry."

"They're even bigger idiots."

"Has it occurred to you that it's about love, not sex?"

"Has it occurred to you that what was going on in there, was not sex but a farce? A travesty? The biggest mistake of their lives? Gambit demanded.

"Ahh, that's what this is really about," Forge said. "You know, Remy, people make mistakes –"

"I'm not stupid!"

"Could have fooled me. Look, neither of us can do a single thing about what's going on in there –"

"Rogue's going to get hurt –"

"My point stands. We can't change it. We can't interrupt them. We can't do a thing about it. So at least let them have the dignity of committing their mistake in private," Forge shouted at him. "What happens when we do get out of here, Remy? Are you going to admit to Rogue that you _watched_ her?"

"I wasn't watching Rogue. I was watching a train wreck," Gambit snapped.

"Yeah? Well, if you were watching that, what else have you been watching?" Forge asked. "Watching her get dressed? Watching her in the shower? Oh, I'm sorry. You were probably just making sure her clothes fit and that the plumbing was working."

"Hey, I'll have you know I have a lot more respect for Rogue and every other woman in this place than to stoop to that level," Gambit objected. "And even if I didn't, it's like a eunuch watching porn: what's the point?"

Forge's tirade was thrown off slightly as his mind ran over his last sentence. A slight smile crossed his face.

"It is a bit like that, huh?" Forge said ruefully.

"You've been watching Stormy naked, haven't you?" Gambit asked slyly.

"Shut up. I've seen her naked with her permission long before we ever got stuck in here."

Silence.

"I have seen some of the filles naked around here, but in my defence, we can't exactly knock on doors," Gambit admitted. "So mostly I keep out of the bedrooms, bathrooms and locker rooms."

"Mostly, yeah," Forge said.

"I usually walk straight out."

"Usually?"

"Well, obviously I didn't today."

"Yeah."

More silence.

"I want to kill Drake," Gambit said.

"I'd gotten that impression," Forge remarked dryly.

"He was doing it all wrong."

"Well, I'm sure he'll get better with practice just like you did."

Another pause.

"I may have looked in on Jean and Scott briefly once," Gambit admitted finally. "I was curious if Scott uses glasses, visor or just shut his eyes through the whole thing, and it wasn't like I could ask him."

"Ahh," Forge replied, paused, and then admitted ruefully: "Yeah, I did too once."

They both snickered.

"Good thing they're both dead, hein?" Gambit said. "Now we don't have to worry about Jean reading our minds when we get out of here."

"Yeah," Forge agreed.

* * *

It was evident to everyone that Rogue and Bobby weren't the same afterwards, even if they didn't know why. They were both awkward and uncomfortable around each other for a week before they finally had the "this isn't working any more" break up talk. Gambit cheered.

The following evening Rogue was invited out to the movies with the group, but what with both Bobby and Kitty going, she opted to decline. Instead she holed up in her room with her laptop.

And _Star Trek_ DVDs.

"Forge!" Gambit yelled through the comm badge. "Get your butt to Rogue's room pronto! She's watching _Star Trek_!"

_"On my way!" _Forge's voice said back excitedly. _"What series?"_

"_Deep Space Nine_," Gambit reported.

_"Well, we never did see the end of season 6."_

"Shh! It's starting! You're making me miss the battle of Wolf 359."

_"I'm almost there!"_

Forge ran through the wall, skidded to a halt and made himself at home next to Rogue.

"This screen's way too small," Forge said.

"I'm just glad she's not using headphones," Gambit replied. "Shh!"

Forge winced at the thought of that particular torture and thus it was that Rogue had company for what she thought was her own private _Star Trek_ marathon.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Rogue quickly became a competitor for Storm for the position of Forge's favourite person. On the one hand, girlfriend. On the other hand, _Star Trek_. It was a hard decision to make.

There was no stuck competition in Gambit's mind.

"She's hot, she likes _Star Trek_, she has a cool code name and she can manipulate Logan," Gambit said. "I think I might be in love, actually."

Forge laughed at him.

Incidentally, a few episodes of _Deep Space Nine _later:

"Huh," said Gambit. "I forgot the Siskos came from New Orleans. Hey, do you think this mean I have a chance with Rogue?"

"How do you come to that conclusion?" Forge asked.

"Well, she likes Jake Sisko, right?" Gambit pointed out. "Just look at all the things we have in common. We're both from New Orleans. We can both cook. He's apparently cute and we all know I'm an absolute Adonis -"

"You're arrogant and he's not," Forge cut in. "He writes poetry and short stories. You don't."

"How do you know what I write?" Gambit challenged.

Forge gave him a look. Gambit sighed.

"Okay fine, I'm more likely to steal someone else's poetry than write it myself," Gambit said.

"You're so proud of being a thief, aren't you?" Forge said in disgust.

"Oh! That's something else I have in common with Jake," Gambit went on merrily. "Jake hangs out with Ferengi. Ferengi are cheats, con artists, money grubbers, gamblers, extortionists and thieves. I spent my entire childhood growing up with that kind of crowd."

"Ooookay, I'm just going to go back to watching the show now," Forge said.

* * *

Rogue didn't find out straight away. Between her job, holing up in her room with _Star Trek _and private training sessions with Logan, she stopped watching the news. And since her psyches had started influencing her actions, she had gotten well used to people whispering behind her back and ignored it.

However, Gambit and Forge quickly learned what Rogue was missing: Rumours of the cure wearing off and mutants everywhere seeing the gradual return of their powers. It had not been the permanent solution that it had been advertised as. Between the battle at Alcatraz and Jimmy now living at Xaviers, there was no chance for a second production line either, despite many calls for it from both humans and mutants alike.

Then confirmation of numbers started coming in. By that point, everyone assumed Rogue knew, and no one thought to make sure.

Learning the truth, however, was inevitable. Rogue was in the rec room and was in between games of pool when she caught the news story playing on TV. The colour drained from her face and she began shaking her head wildly.

"No, no, no, no, no," she said desperately. "It can't be wearing off. It can't!"

"Wait, you didn't know?" Jubilee asked, staring at her. "They told us weeks ago."

Rogue stared at her and everyone in the room stared back.

"No!" Rogue exclaimed, sounding almost hysterical. "No, I didn't know. This can't be... I don't _want_ my powers back!"

She couldn't take it. Everyone staring at her. The voices. All her bare skin. It was a horrible nightmare coming to life right then and there. Rogue backed away towards the door, turning at the last minute and running straight into Warren.

Bare-chested Warren.

And she with no gloves.

Warren gasped and his eyes rolled into the back of his head even as the spidery lines crawled across his skin. Rogue cried out, backed away and shuddered as a pair of feathery white wings emerged from her back, breaking through her shirt. She grabbed her head, turned once more and with a mixed cry of anguish and tears, ran for the window, broke right through it and flew up into the sky. Those who didn't stare after her hurried to Warren's side to check on him.

Gambit, for his part, was grateful for his ability to walk on air just as easily as he could walk through walls in this dimension. He raced off into the air after Rogue; as long as she stayed in the "bubble", he could stay with her.

Rogue flew higher and higher until Gambit could only watch from the peak of the bubble. She sobbed bitter tears even as she fought Warren in her mind. She thought she was finally free, only to be trapped once more in the prison of her own body.

In fact, she stayed up there just a little too long.

She didn't even scream as she plummeted towards the ground.

"I could be wrong," Warren said as he swooped in to catch her, "but I think returning to land before my wings wore off you would have been a good idea. You would have been in trouble if I had been comatose for longer than twenty minutes - or was that the whole point?"

Rogue didn't answer.

* * *

"No _Star Trek_ tonight?" Forge asked Gambit as he walked into Rogue's room.

Gambit kept his eyes on Rogue who was seated on her bed and looking off into space. He shook his head.

"She's had a bit of a shock," Gambit said. "I don't think she's in the mood."

"Pity," Forge replied. "I am."

"Yeah."

"You, umm, going to start zapping her again?"

"Probably," Gambit replied with a shrug. "But I'm going to wait a bit first. It just doesn't feel right sticking her with our problems when she's got plenty of her own to deal with right now."

"Yeah, I get your point."

* * *

Rogue was quiet, despondent and generally depressed for a week before Logan decided enough was enough. She only came out of her room to stare at her food or go to the bathroom. When she failed to answer Logan's knock, he took his claws to the door and barged right in. Rogue barely looked at him from under the covers as he glowered down at her.

"Get out of bed, get dressed and get downstairs. You're coming with me," Logan told her. "Oh, and by the way, you need a new door."

Despite her mood, Rogue realised that when Logan reduces your bedroom door to splinters, there is no defying him. Reluctantly Rogue grabbed her clothes, got changed in the bathroom and met Logan downstairs where he insisted that she eat (Gambit cheered), and he watched her consume every bite, growling or giving her a glare when he decided she wasn't eating enough or fast enough.

From there, Logan took her down to the garage. Gambit gave a low whistle at the new motorcycle on the floor while Rogue stared. It had been boring hanging around Rogue lately, but Gambit hadn't felt right leaving her alone this past week, so he had no idea what Logan had bought for her.

"Hellooooo Gorgeous," Gambit practically crooned, making a beeline to the motorcycle and started inspecting her with glee.

"Is... is this for me?" Rogue barely dared to ask.

"Depends," Logan replied.

"On what?"

Logan tossed her a helmet. "On if you can handle her."

A slow smile crossed Rogue's face and Logan was well pleased with the first sign of life he'd seen out of her all week. She and Logan headed out on their bikes; leaving a rather disappointed Gambit behind. He would have loved to have joined them.

Rogue and Logan pretty much spent the day driving around, ignoring speed limits and just generally taking stupid risks. Well, stupid risks for their bikes, anyway. What with Logan's healing factor and Rogue's ability to absorb his healing factor, neither was all that concerned with personal injury.

By the time they got back to the mansion, Logan had accomplished what he had wanted to do; he'd gotten Rogue out of her slump. Now they just needed to keep her out of it.

The next day, Rogue went back to work, and afterwards Logan kept her busy with extra training sessions. She also found herself back in danger room sessions with the others.

Gambit did start zapping Rogue again not long after she had her door replaced (and was informed by Logan that she had to fit it herself).

In the evenings, Rogue started watching _Star Trek_ again, much to Gambit and Forge's delight. She'd gotten through all of _Deep Space Nine_ by this stage and was partway through _Voyager_. Forge was happily drooling over Seven of Nine, which led to discussions between he and Gambit over the hottest _Star Trek_ women.

"See B'Elanna," Gambit said. "I'd do B'Elanna. Just so long as she shuts up about how her Klingon side makes her so aggressive. There's no need for that kind of angst. Besides, I like aggressive."

"You would."

"I thought it was hilarious when she bit Tom under the influence of the pon farr."

"I suspect you're just a fan of the pon farr in general," Forge accused him. "That whole 'have sex or die' thing probably does it for you."

"Hey, if you can only say one thing about the Vulcans, they're a race that knows how to go to extremes," Gambit said. "Although, I have to admit, B'Elanna getting influenced by the pon farr from Vorik partially implementing a bond with her does seem a little contrived to get us some B'Elanna/Tom action. I like Tom."

"Why? Because he reminds you of you?" Forge teased him.

"Well, he doesn't remind me that much of me," Gambit said reproachfully. "Although he does know how to get around with the ladies. Captain Janeway's hot too."

"Yeah, she doesn't really do anything for me. I'm really surprised you're not into Seven though."

"The body's nice enough, but the personality doesn't really do a whole lot for me. I'm not really sure I'd want to bed a woman who's likely to tell me what I'm doing is illogical."

Forge laughed.

"I like Kes too, actually," Forge said. "She's cute."

"Kes looks like she belongs in the _Original Series_ to me," Gambit mused.

Forge scratched his head. "She does?"

"You don't see it too?"

"Uhh, no."

"Must be just me then."

"Yep."

"Jadzia Dax was hot," Gambit said. "Ezri Dax, not so much, although I have to say there is something very alluring about those Trill spots..."

"I like Ezri better than Jadzia," Forge said. "Oh, I'll tell you who's really hot? Deanna Troi."

"I'll stick to B'Elanna thanks," Gambit replied. "Or maybe Major Kira. Orrr Uhura."

"It's hard to decide, isn't it?" Forge said.

"Yeah. You think we can just bed all of them?"

* * *

By the time that Rogue had watched all of _The Next Generation_ and gotten to the _Original Series_, Gambit and Forge had passed their twelfth year stuck in the "transporter buffer". Gambit and Forge both loved the _Original Series_, and thus were equally frustrated with Rogue and her less than enthusiastic reaction to it.

"Well, you have to admit, she does have a point," Gambit said. "The acting is pretty bad, and the special effects are nowhere near today's standards."

"But that's no reason to laugh and groan all the way through it," Forge objected.

"I just happy she's watching it at all," Gambit said, "even if she doesn't watch the episodes that often."

"She's stretching it out just to annoy us," Forge grumbled.

With the _Original Series_ failing to appeal to Rogue as much as the other series of _Star Trek_, Rogue began spending more of her '_Star Trek_' time socialising again. Although there were many inquiries on what Rogue had been doing with herself lately, Rogue never admitted her new interest in _Star Trek_. Forge disapproved. Gambit applauded her closet-Trekkie behaviour. This let to further arguments between Forge and Gambit on the subjects of "there's nothing wrong with admitting you're a _Star Trek_ fan" and "Trekkie vs Trekker" debates, with Forge insisting it was "Trekker" and Gambit insisting it was "Trekkie",

* * *

One night in the rec room:

"You know what I haven't played in years?" said Jubilee. "UNO."

"Yeah," Rogue said, bemused. "Let's play."

"All right."

They were joined by a few others and Jubilee pulled out the cards.

"Anyone wanna help me shuffle?" Jubilee asked.

"Sure," said Piotr.

"I'll help," said Rogue.

"I suck at shuffling," admitted Kitty. "My idea of shuffling is to just throw them up in the air and mix them around a bit."

Jubilee chuckled as she divided the thick deck and passed the piles around to the volunteers.

"Just takes practice," said Bobby.

"Yeah, I'm not much good at it either," Rogue said, reaching for her drink. "But I try anyway."

"Oh, you are such a liar," Jubilee said as she watched Rogue shuffle the cards with one hand and hold her glass with the other. "That's awesome."

"Huh?" Rogue asked even as Gambit's face lit up with glee. She turned, looked at her right hand - which was busily shuffling cards like she had been doing it one-handed for years - and her eyes widened in shock. "Would you believe me if I told you I have no idea how I'm doing this?"

Kitty giggled.

"Do you have a card shark in there, Rogue?" asked Bobby.

"I guess so," Rogue replied. "Don't ask me which one it is, though. I have no idea."

Meanwhile Gambit was busy doing a happy dance.

"She got that from me!" he sang happily. "She got that from me!"

Forge laughed at him, but he was no less delighted with this turn of events. For the first time in two years since Rogue's arrival at the mansion, they'd finally had a sign that Gambit had succeeded in getting her to absorb him.

"Okay this is just too weird," Rogue said when she finished shuffling the cards and handed her share of the deck back.

"But cool," Jubilee insisted. "Can you do anything else?"

"Sugar, I didn't even know I could do that."

Still when the cards were dealt, Rogue picked up the neat pile of cards and fanned them out one-handed. When she had a few too many cards in her hand and was waiting for her turn, she'd spring them from hand to hand and when at last she announced "UNO", she absently flipped her final card through her fingers.

"Umm, Rogue," said Kitty. "You are aware that we now all know what your final card is now?"

"Hmm? Oh," Rogue said, glancing at her fingers. "Oh no, whatever will I do? You all know I have a wild card."

"You'd be really bad at poker," Bobby said.

"No," Gambit disagreed, a big silly grin on his face. "No, she wouldn't."

* * *

"Why do you suppose she hasn't reset the machine yet?" Forge asked.

They were in Forge's lab, where Forge often hung out, experimenting with different inventions using what resources he had.

"I have no idea," Gambit said, considering. "She didn't know what she could do with the cards until she actually had cards in her hand. Maybe if she ever saw the transporter she'd instantly know what to do with it."

"Maybe, but my lab's been locked up all this time," Forge pointed out. "If she never comes in here, she's never going to see it."

Gambit glanced at the time.

"She'll be back from work soon," he said. "Maybe I should start changing the message? Start thinking about your lab door instead. I know how to pick this lock. If she can pick up my card skills when I wasn't even trying to pass those on, I should be able to pass her instructions on how to find and get in here, right?"

"Sounds reasonable to me," Forge replied and walked with Gambit through the door and down the hall. "Let's see, discounting the time she wasn't absorbing you because of the -"

Forge broke off as they stepped around the corner and stared at the sight before him: Storm and Logan, arms wrapped around each other and lip-locked. Gambit looked away and put his hand down on Forge's shoulder sympathetically.

"No," Forge whimpered. "No. No! Not when we're so close! No!"

"It's been twelve years, Forge," Gambit said quietly. "You had to know this was always a possibility."

"Shut up, Remy!" Forge yelled. "Please, 'Ro. Please, just wait just a little longer, please? I know it's been a long time but I'm coming back. I'm coming back!"

Gambit said nothing. He watched while Forge attempted to hold the love of his life, only for her to walk away, hand in hand with another man. He watched while Forge pleaded and begged, his words falling on deaf ears. He watched as Forge slumped to the ground in despair.

"Why can't I cry, Remy?" Forge asked. "Why can't I cry?"


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: **So thanks to Capt_Mackenzie for pointing out my little mistake. It's Ezri Dax, not Ezra. Oops. Fixed now!

* * *

**Chapter 8**

"Okay kids," said Logan addressing Rogue, Bobby, Kitty and Piotr in the danger room. "The object today is to collect the big shiny red ruby and get it back here. You have one hour to get past the guards and traps. You will have to work together as a team to accomplish this."

Logan paused and then allowed himself a sly grin.

"And just to make things interesting," he went on. "One of you - and you know who you are - is a traitor. Your time starts... now."

The four glanced at each other and then delved into the course.

"I bet Rogue's the traitor," said Forge.

"Really?" Gambit asked hopefully as they watched the team enter the first room and take out the guards. "You actually want to bet?"

"Uhh, no."

"Well, you're no fun."

Forge snickered.

"Probably wise anyway," Gambit went on slyly. "Rogue isn't the traitor."

"What makes you so sure?" Forge asked.

"Too obvious. Everyone knows that Rogue and Logan are close. Everyone knows he gives her private training. I mean, look at them," Gambit said, gesturing to the group and how they were working together to get through the traps. "They're all keeping their distance from Rogue and at the same time keeping a close eye on her."

"Well, that's true," Forge conceded as Bobby created an ice pathway across a field of spikes. "Who do you think it is then?"

"I'm undecided between Piotr and Kitty," Gambit replied while the team made their way across the ice.

"Not Bobby?"

"Bobby would not be able to play the part of a traitor. He's no good at deception unless he's playing a prank."

"Or maybe he's just trying to make you think that," Forge joked.

A couple more traps and a number of guards later and the team made it to the lava-filled chasm.

"Too hot," said Bobby as he eyed off the chasm. "I can ice us over but the ice would melt too fast."

"Leave it to me," said Piotr.

Piotr, with his enhanced strength, selected a pillar and pushed it over at just the right angle to land on the landing on the other side of the chasm where the "big shiny red ruby" was being held. Gambit watched as Bobby went over first, followed by Rogue, then Kitty and finally Piotr.

"Traitor's Kitty," Gambit declared.

"Yeah?"

Before Forge could ask why, he saw for himself. Just as Rogue stepped off the pillar, Kitty made the pillar intangible. Kitty was fine, of course, but Piotr, as last in line, fell into the chasm.

"Omigod! Pete!" Kitty cried, looking over the chasm. "No!"

"We have to save him," Rogue said.

_"Actually, you can't,"_ Logan informed them over the speaker system. _"If that was real lava, he'd be real dead."_

"Damn," Rogue muttered.

"Well," said Bobby, looking a little shaken. "We've got the prize anyway. Time to go back."

"Right," Rogue agreed with a glance at Kitty. "Let's all try to keep our footing this time. We don't want another... accident."

"Ha," Gambit said with a smirk. "She knows."

"No," Kitty agreed. "We definitely don't."

The three made their way back across the chasm without incident. They started to go back the way they came and were immediately confronted by another - larger - wave of guards. During the intense fighting that followed, Gambit pointed to Kitty and Forge watched as she phased through Bobby.

"What did I miss?" asked Forge.

"She just picked his pockets," Gambit said with a smirk. "She picked up a rock before about the size of the ruby. She's traded places."

"Ahh."

"If she's smart, she'll take out Rogue next. Then she and Bobby go through to the end. She'll either take out Bobby as well, or she'll win just by virtue of the fact that she's the one with the prize. The trick will be convincing Bobby that Rogue's the traitor, which shouldn't be too hard, seeing as how Bobby already suspects her."

The battle ended with a number of simulated guard bodies on the ground.

"Wow," said Kitty lightly as she looked around. "You did pretty good there, Rogue. I think you took out twice as many as we did."

Rogue raised an eyebrow at Kitty. Kitty ignored the look and continued on ahead. Bobby spared Rogue a glance before following Kitty. Rogue rolled her eyes.

"You know," said Bobby. "Maybe you should go in front, Rogue. Seeing as how they're all falling at your feet."

"Told you it wouldn't be hard," Gambit said.

"Must be my breath," Rogue drawled.

Bobby laughed. Rogue led the way down the hall carefully. As many of the traps had already been bypassed, it was easy enough to get through them. Primarily it was just guards they had to deal with, and most of them had been already.

They reached the room of spikes once again. The ice bridge was still intact, if a little on the melted side.

"Perhaps you should freeze this over again, Bobby," Rogue said.

"Yeah..." said Bobby slowly. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Well, I have this thing about getting impaled," Rogue replied.

"And what happens when we get to the other side and you don't need me any more?" he asked suspiciously.

"Either way, we have to get to the other side," Rogue pointed out. "We can either take the bridge, or Kitty can phase us through the spikes. Make a decision now, Iceboy. We've got company coming."

"Ice_man_," Bobby corrected.

"Look," said Kitty. "Bobby, you go first, then me, and then Rogue. Let's go."

Bobby eyed Rogue suspiciously, but began freezing over the bridge again. Now the pit of spikes was wall to wall in a six foot wide passage. The bridge that Bobby made was three feet. He reinforced the ice as planned as he made his way over, Kitty close behind and Rogue just as close. A large and well-armed batch of guards appeared behind them and also began to cross.

"They're getting closer," Kitty hissed. "Quick, Bobby, freeze over the doorway. I'll phase us through."

Bobby conceded. The bridge already reinforced, Bobby redirected his ice to the doorway, which he began to freeze over. As soon as they stepped onto solid land, the three bolted to the doorway. Kitty held Bobby and Rogue's hands, but Rogue suspected that Kitty had no intention of phasing them both through.

With very little time at her disposal, Rogue did something she hadn't done in quite some time, as she generally preferred not to absorb her friends: she closed the distance and pressed her forehead to Kitty's cheek. Kitty faltered and Rogue ignored Bobby's cry of "I knew you were the traitor", instead phasing all three of them through the ice.

"You were saying?" Rogue drawled.

"What did you absorb Kitty for? Huh?" Bobby demanded.

Kitty held her head as she fought off the dizziness Rogue's touch had caused. Rogue phased her hand through Kitty's clothes and pulled out the ruby.

"Missing something, Bobby?" Rogue asked. "Come on. We're almost done."

Bobby checked his pockets as Rogue started off.

"Damn," he muttered under his breath and hurried to catch up with Rogue.

* * *

_"Here's what I don't get though," said Jubilee. "She found out that the cure was wearing off, and the first thing that happened was that she absorbed Warren and not only did he end up in her head, but she actually flew off. That doesn't really seem to fit with the whole 'powers returning gradually' thing they were talking about."_

_"Well, she was having more and more problems with her psyches," Bobby pointed out. "Maybe that was the gradual part."_

_"Yeah, I thought of that," Jubilee said. "I don't know. It kind of fits, I suppose, but I still don't think that with all the skin she's been baring all this time that a full absorption makes any sense."_

_"You think it's all in her head," said Kitty, realisation dawning. "The only reason why she can't touch people without hurting them is because she thinks she can't touch people without hurting them. She already had her powers back completely before she heard the news story -"_

_"And when she did, she immediately panicked, absorbed Warren, and returned to 'I can't touch anyone' mode," Jubilee finished._

_"That's all very well in theory," Piotr said quietly. "But assuming that this is truly the case, what do you propose we say to Rogue?"_

_"Yeah, I can imagine that conversation," Bobby said dryly. "She'll object to the very idea that it's all in her head and that she really can't touch anyone and then her stubborn streak'll kick in and she'll touch someone just to prove it's not in her head and -"_

* * *

Rogue stared in the mirror, the memory of Kitty's conversation with the others replaying in her head over and over.

"It's not all in my head," she said, glaring at her reflection. "And I'm not stubborn."

Gambit snickered. He had no idea what had gotten her so irritated, but it was sure amusing to watch.

"You're wrong," Rogue went on angrily. "I don't know why I can't control my powers but it's not because it's _all in my head_. I can't believe them! Do they think I want to live like this? Screw them!"

Gambit raised an eyebrow. So that's what this was about. Gambit had mixed feelings about the idea of Rogue getting control. On the one hand, the day Rogue got control was the day there was no point in zapping her any more because she wouldn't receive any more of his messages. On the other hand, he did feel sorry for her. He sure wouldn't want to deal with his powers being out of control.

Well, all he could do was hope she freed them before she got control.

When Rogue eventually calmed down, she opted to watch some more _Star Trek. _Naturally, Gambit immediately alerted Forge. Rogue was just over the halfway mark of the third and final season of the _Original Series_ and Gambit was delighted when he realised that this episode involved a certain green-skinned species.

Rogue hit the 'pause' button as the green woman who was basically wearing a one-piece swim suit fawned over Captain Kirk.

"Say what?" Forge objected. "Hey, keep playing. Trying to watch here."

"Oh, Roguey can keep it on this screen as along as she wants," Gambit said delightedly. "I do love the Orion Slave Girls."

"The Orion Slave Girls are not that exciting," Forge said.

"And you call yourself a man."

"This is probably your fault, you know. Your psyche has probably got Rogue all interested in them. She's going to kill you when we get out of here," Forge said.

"Only if she finds out," Gambit replied, grinning away.

Eventually Rogue pressed 'play' again, and the rest of the episode played out.

* * *

Rogue was later than usual coming home from work the next day. At first Gambit didn't really think anything of it, especially when she came home with an extra bag, indicating she had done some shopping. What did get his attention, however, was when she coated her hands in black body paint.

"Okay chere," he said. "I'll bite. What are you up to?"

She waited for the paint to dry and then put on her other new purchase: a pair of black fingerless gloves. Rogue inspected her handiwork carefully, and finally sighed.

"Well," she muttered to herself. "People see what they want to see."

Gambit's curiosity was further peeked by this statement, mostly because it was one of the credos he lived by as a con artist. Rogue pulled on a long sleeved shirt and headed on downstairs.

Rogue felt a little self-conscious about her bare fingers, but reminded herself that there was a coating of paint on them. She should be able to touch anyone she wanted just fine without absorbing a thing. Nevertheless, Rogue tried to keep her fingers out of plain view, not wanting anyone to notice and comment. Her advantage was that if anyone glanced at her hands they would assume she was wearing gloves as she always wore gloves. As long as no one decided to take a closer look she should be able to get away with it.

Rogue passed by Piotr and Kitty in the hall. With her hands dangling by her sides, Rogue's fingers brushed past Piotr's making contact. A big silly grin appeared on her face when she realised that she hadn't absorbed a thing from him. It was at this point that Gambit realised what she was doing and he watched her the rest of the evening with a good deal of amusement.

Evidentially, Rogue was determined to prove to herself and to everyone that the problem with her lack of control was not in her head - and if it was, she wasn't going to let it remain that way any longer. Not one person noticed that Rogue wasn't wearing full-fingered gloves and although her moments of skin-to-skin contact were brief, not once did she absorb anyone.

* * *

Rogue's little experiments with paint and physical contact continued, both in and out of Xaviers.

Now it happened that the next exciting thing that Rogue did involved advertising for a _Star Trek_ convention.

"I wanna go," Forge complained when he found out about Rogue's plans. "I wanna go to the con."

"You and me both," said Gambit. "That would mean we wouldn't be stuck in the transformer buffer any more."

"Stop calling it that. It's not a transporter buffer."

"Says you."

"Yeah, says me," Forge insisted. "Hey, I wonder if she'll go in costume?"

"I'd be surprised," Gambit said. "This is only a new thing for her. I doubt she's that hardcore yet."

* * *

Gambit was woken up quite early on the morning of the convention by Rogue's alarm clock. Zapping Rogue the night before had sent him to sleepy-land as usual, and of course, this generally meant he woke up next to her in the mornings. He had no reason to complain, well, aside from the fact that they weren't really in bed together.

Too lazy to get out of bed - in a manner of speaking - Gambit just closed his eyes while Rogue went about her business. She left her bedroom, showered and dried off, then returned. She pulled out a sheet of plastic which she spread out on her bedroom floor and pulled out all the green body paint she had bought. When Gambit opened his eyes again he stared at the view in utter shock, torn between wanting to give the very naked Rogue the privacy she deserved, and wanting to admire the highly attractive woman turning herself into an Orion Slave Girl before his eyes.

Eventually, reluctantly, Gambit talked himself into doing the right thing and walked out, his eyes noting Rogue's motorcycle helmet on the table. He hit his comm badge and called for Forge.

"Forge, you have got to get here," Gambit instructed him. "As in right now. Well, not right this second as Rogue needs a bit more prep time, but you need to get here before she gets ready to leave."

_"Ooookay, what's the occasion?"_ Forge asked.

"I was wrong. Rogue is going to the convention in costume."

_"Yeah? Awesome. What's she going as?"_

"It involves body paint. Care to guess what colour?"

_"Umm... white?"_

"Non."

_"Blue?"_

"Non."

_"Brown? For Trill spots?"_

"As alluring as that idea is, no."

_"It's not green, is it?"_

"Oh yes, it's green."

_"You're serious? She's going as an Orion?"_

"Oui," Gambit said with a happy sigh. "She's going as an Orion."

Forge soon joined him outside of Rogue's door.

"I'm surprised you're not in there ogling her," Forge said dryly.

"So am I actually," Gambit said with a grin. "Although I do peek every now and then -"

"Remy!"

"- just to see if she's done. What? It's not like I can knock. Sheesh."

"Guess so."

"And we can't wait for her to come out, either," Gambit went on. "She's got her motorcycle helmet in there, which says to me she has no intention of letting anyone here see her with green skin."

"Makes sense, I guess," Forge conceded.

Gambit peeked again a moment later. "Oh good, she's dressed now... in a manner of speaking."

"What's that supposed to..." Forge asked as he walked through the door and trailed off when his eyes landed on Rogue.

Rogue was covered heard to toe in green body paint and wore a short, wraparound skirt and a bikini top.

"Well," said Gambit as they watched her do her make up. "It's finally happened."

"What's finally happened?" asked Forge.

"I've fallen in love with a girl who doesn't even know I exist. Usually it's the other way around."

"Okay, two things," Forge replied. "One, she does know you exist, kind of, She's been absorbing you."

"So? I'm peripherally aware that there have been girls who've fallen for me whom I've never spoken to."

"Two, what you're feeling isn't love, it's lust. This is probably one of your little geek fantastic right here."

"Au contraire. Well... okay I have to concede the geek fantasy," Gambit said. "But on the other matter, I object. I did not say I was in love because I have a fondness for scantily dressed women, which I do. I said it because Rogue's the most courageous woman I've ever known. Forge, her mutation - uncontrollable mutation - is in her skin. She's planning on going to a convention, which'll probably be crowded, bearing more skin than she has since the 'cure' was effective. She's standing up to her fears and making the highest-stake gamble of her life doing this."

Forge nodded thoughtfully.

"Yes, I guess I see your point," he said. "But still, isn't she a little young for you?"

"What's four years?" asked Gambit expansively.

"Four?" Forge repeated. "Try sixteen."

"You're just sore because instead of being one year older than Stormy, you're now eleven years younger," Gambit teased him. "I don't think these last twelve years particularly count as 'living'."

Forge didn't know what to say to that, so he didn't say anything. It was hard enough coming to terms with the idea that Storm now dating Logan without trying to deal with an age difference as well.

Forge hung around until Rogue finished putting the finishing touches on her costume, then left, Gambit stayed with her until she put on her motorcycle gear and followed her down to the garage.

"Good luck, chere," he said as she started her bike. "I hope you have an awesome day."

* * *

The other residents of Xaviers, while they knew Rogue had plans for the weekend, never actually found out what they were. She stayed out most of the day and when she came home she went straight to her room. Logan was curious about the paint smell on her. He'd smelt paint on her a fair bit lately, and was probably the only one who had cottoned onto her little touching-people scheme. Nevertheless, he figured Rogue would tell when she was really to tell and left it at that.

After the weekend was over, Rogue waited until the middle of the night before heading to the showers to wash off all the green paint. The following day when she began socialising with everyone, she merely said she had a great weekend and refused to give any details. Everyone noticed she was a lot happier though.

A couple of weeks later, Rogue put her next plan into action. She now knew without a doubt that paint was a sufficient covering to keep her from absorbing anyone. The problem with coloured body paint, however, was that she could see when it was wearing thin and would touch it up. If this was really all in her head, then she needed to be able to know she could still touch people safely even when she couldn't see a protective layer.

So Rogue got herself a professional spray on tan.

It was easiest to test the tan outside of Xaviers. No one at work was aware of the particulars of her mutation, so it was easy enough to touch her fellow mechanics skin to skin with no one thinking anything of it. From there, people in the streets, during shopping, any opportunity she could find to touch people, she would. It was frightening and exciting all at the same time, and every time she touched someone without hurting them it filled her with more and more confidence.

Sooner or later, the tan would wear and fade, Rogue knew that, but there was no specific date. There was no way for her to know when the tan would be too thin to offer any protection and she would be honestly touching people skin to skin. Rogue, filled with all sorts of hopes by now, badly wanted to not even notice when that day came and go on touching people with no harm.

After Rogue got the tan, Gambit moved his zapping to under her feet rather than her head. It was the only 'safe' part of her body he could be reasonably certain wouldn't have gotten a spray, or at least not a very thick one. Of course, if Rogue had genuine control now, regardless of what chemicals had now taken up residence on her skin, it wouldn't make a difference anyway.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Two weeks later, Kitty had the computer lab shut down while she dealt with a virus that had gotten into their network. So while all the televisions in the house were being dominated and fought over, Rogue, Bobby, Jubilee, Piotr, Storm and Logan decided to be different and play board games. After much indecision, they pulled out _Pay Day_.

"Remind me again why I'm playing this," said Logan.

"Because we're enjoying some quality time together," said Storm.

"Yeah, yeah," said Logan. "I think after this I might go hit the bar for awhile."

"Spoil sport," Rogue teased him.

The game progressed and as the draw pile grew smaller, Jubilee handed the used pile to Rogue with a silly grin. Rogue snickered and began to shuffle them with one hand.

"How long have you been able to do that?" Logan asked while Storm stared in shock.

"Few months," Rogue replied with a shrug. "I think one of my psyches must be able to do it 'cause I sure never learned myself."

"Mention me," Gambit said to Storm eagerly. "Please, please mention me."

"You think hearing your name might trigger something?" asked Forge.

"Hey, if Rogue has her powers under control then we've lost our chance for further absorptions," Gambit pointed out.

"She can do other cool stuff too," said Bobby. "Hey, did you figure out who the card shark was?"

"Nah," Rogue replied as she put the cards back down. "But then, I haven't really worried too much about it."

"Worry about it," coaxed Forge. "Please, worry about it."

"Like what?" asked Logan curiously.

Rogue shrugged and picked up the deck again. She paused and then fanned the cards out with one hand. She pushed the cards back together again, and then sprung them from one hand to the other. Rogue's face grew mischievous and she began flicking them at her friends. Gambit looked at Storm, hopefully, but if anything she only grew quieter. Gambit sighed. She wasn't going to say anything.

Rogue did a couple more tricks, and with a smirk gathered up the cards and put them back down.

"There you go, mon ami," she said. "I think that about expends my repertoire of card tricks, no?"

"What did you say?" Storm asked, lifting her head and catching Rogue's eyes. "Rogue, your eyes!"

"Woohoo!" Gambit yelled. "My eyes! My eyes! Rogue just got my eyes!"

"What's wrong with my eyes, Stormy?" Rogue asked.

"They've changed colour," Logan said the same time Jubilee said "Umm, they're red and black now" and Storm said "What did you just call me?"

Rogue didn't answer. She lifted her hand to her eyes as Jubilee passed her compact over. Rogue stared at her reflection as the foreign, yet familiar eyes looked back at her. In her shock, the compact began to glow with magenta light. Storm gave a yell, grabbed the compact and tossed it, just moments before it exploded.

"Well," said Rogue, staring after it. "I've never done that before."

"I only know one person who can," Storm said, her voice bordering on hysterical. "I only know one person with those eyes. I only know one person who can do those card tricks. And he disappeared over a decade ago, well before you even came here, Rogue. Remy LeBeau. I don't know how you've managed to absorb him but -"

"Transporter buffer," Rogue said, a confused expression crossing her face.

"What?" Storm asked as Forge groaned and Gambit laughed in delight.

"Remy and... and someone else," Rogue said slowly, her frown deepening.

"Forge?"

"Oui, that's it. Everything's fragmented, it's hard to put the pieces together. They're alive. They're stuck in the transporter buffer. Reset. I have to reset the transporter."

"What transporter?" asked Bobby.

"I don't know," Rogue said, sounding frustrated. "I feel like someone's dumped a jigsaw puzzle in my head with half the pieces missing."

Forge snickered.

"Forge has a lab," Storm said. "He practically lived in there. It's been locked up ever since... Come."

Storm stood and strode towards the door; Rogue, Logan, Jubilee, Bobby, Piotr, Gambit and Forge close behind.

"We're getting out of here," Gambit said excitedly. "We're finally getting out of here!"

"If I didn't know better, I'd say I was dreaming," Forge said with equal glee.

Gambit and Forge raced ahead and gathered up their things for their return. Storm unlocked the door with a shaking hand and slowly pushed it open. Forge's lab was dusty, dirty and covered in cobwebs. Rogue left foot prints on the ground as she stepped inside.

"That's it," Rogue said as her eyes fell on the transporter. "That's the transporter."

Rogue walked over while everyone else hovered neared the doorway. Rogue reached out and brushed the dirt away carefully on the panel so she could read the words although the image in her head told her where the reset button was. She took a breath and pressed it in.

Abruptly, the transporter lit up. It whirred and a light shone forth, creating a bright, donut shaped portal in the middle of the room.

"It's too small," Gambit said.

"Needs more power," Forge said pointedly.

Gambit put his hands around the portal and Storm caught her breath as she watched while magenta light flickered and curled around the circle, which enticed it to expand.

"Remy?" she dared to whisper.

As soon as the portal was big enough, Forge stepped through with one leg. He ducked his head under and through and finally pulled his second leg out.

"Forge!" Storm exclaimed.

In a moment they were in each other's embrace.

"I missed you so much," Forge said.

"I thought you were gone forever," Storm replied, her voice thick.

Meanwhile, Gambit was also climbed through. It was with create relief that he finally let go of the charge that was all that was keeping the portal open and Rogue caught him before he hit the ground.

"Hey," she said softly.

"My hero," Gambit replied.

And much to the shock and astonishment of everyone in the room, he lifted his head and kissed her, mouth to mouth. Once she got over her shock, Rogue pulled away slightly only to see Gambit smiling tiredly up at her, and it was then that Rogue realised she'd actually touched someone with active powers and didn't absorb them.

"Allow me to introduce myself, ma chere. I'm Remy LeBeau," Gambit said."Or you can call me the man of your dreams."

"The man _of_ my dreams or the man _in_ my dreams?" Rogue retorted.

"Both if you want," Gambit replied with a grin.

"Well, he's all right," Storm said dryly.

"Hey Stormy," Gambit said as he attempted to pull himself to his feet.

"I can't believe I actually missed you calling me that," Storm said, moving in to hug her old friend.

"I'll remember you said that," he teased her.

"I'm sure."

"Hey, Remy," Forge said, holding his stomach. "I think I'm hungry."

"Well, I should hope so," Gambit replied. "It's only been twelve years since we last ate anything. To the kitchen!"

He started to walk off and needed to be caught by Rogue and Storm before he hit the floor.

"That was ungainly of you," Storm teased him.

"Ha! You try powering a transdimensional portal and see how exhausting it is," Gambit replied.

* * *

"Wow," Forge said fifteen minutes later over a lunch meat sandwich. "I'd forgotten how good food tasted."

"You and me both," Gambit agreed.

"So, what exactly happened?" asked Storm.

"Well, there was a little accident," Forge said.

"That much I gathered."

"I turned the transporter on by accident and Remy and I got caught in the beam," Forge said. "We've been stuck in this other dimension all this time, not really alive, not really dead. We were able to move through everything and everyone. Couldn't eat or drink, didn't need to go to the bathroom -"

"Didn't sweat, didn't get injured, hair didn't even grow," Gambit added. "I figure that means I'm still twenty-three and not thirty-five."

"Idiot," said Forge. "We tried everything we could think of to get out of there. We tried communication with the Professor and Jean, and Hank -"

"How'd you try communicating with Hank?" Storm asked in surprise. "The Professor and Jean were telepaths but -"

"Remy found out that he could interact a little bit with the real world," Forge explained. "He could charge up the fabric of our dimension and it would have an effect like a static shock on anyone who happened to be in the same place."

"That was you?" Rogue asked, looking at Gambit in surprise.

"Guilty," Gambit replied. "Forge made an amplifier. With that I could charge up the fabric just enough to get my finger through. So, I apologise for taking advantage of your lack of control, chere."

"I think I can find it in my heart to forgive you," Rogue said dryly.

"Bon."

"Anyway," Forge went on with a roll of his eyes. "Remy took to zapping Hank every day at 4pm, in the hopes that our resident genius would notice the pattern and do something about it. Unfortunately, he left and our dimension was basically a bubble around the Institute, so we couldn't exactly follow him. We tried communicating with Kitty too, but she couldn't phase through our dimension."

"Wow, so have you guys been spying on us this whole time?" asked Bobby.

"Oui, I do know where you keep your secret twinkie stash," Gambit told him with a grin. "And I warn you, I'm a professional thief."

"Not my twinkies!"

Gambit snickered then yawned.

"Bet you're looking forward to sleeping in a bed again too," said Jubilee.

"Oui. It's gotta be better than sleeping on air all the time," Gambit replied. "Now, if I can just convince a femme to come back to bed with me..."

He raised his eyebrow at Rogue.

"I don't think so," she drawled. "I don't care how much you know about me, or how much I might have absorbed from you, I don't know you."

"Remy?" said Storm.

"Oui, Stormy?" inquired Gambit.

"Should I be concerned about what kind of... entertainments you've been enjoying?" she asked.

"Let's just say, just like the digestive system, the reproductive system wasn't working either," he said. "And even if it was, I think the best entertainment we got was, well there's a certain television show which Forge and I both like, that someone in this place became a fan of about a year or so ago. It was very exciting because we'd been going through a lot of withdrawal from said show."

"Someone else here likes _Star Trek_?" Storm asked.

"I didn't say which show," Gambit said.

"You don't have to," Storm replied with a smirk. "It's the only one you won't admit you watch."

"I keep telling you," Forge said, "there's no shame in admitting you're a Trekker."

"Trekkie," Gambit corrected.

"Trekker."

"Trekkie."

"Trekker."

"Trekkie."

"I think you just admitted it from your impassioned debate," Storm teased them.

Gambit paused. "Dammit."

"So who else likes it?" asked Bobby curiously.

"As their good taste in television has forever won us our gratitude," said Gambit before Forge could say anything, "and this person has elected not to make it common knowledge, we shall respect their closet-Trekkieness and not say a word."

"Trekker," Forge said.

"Let's not start this again," said Rogue.

"I know it's only a sandwich," Gambit said, "but it's the best thing I've eaten in years."

"It's the only thing you've eaten in years," Forge said.

"Stormy, I'm taking over your kitchen," Gambit declared. "Starting... tomorrow. For at least a week."

"Planning on cooking for all of us?" Storm asked.

"If I have to."

"You have to."

"Then I will."

"I wouldn't mind some of your gumbo..."

"Done."

"Excellent. Remy's a fantastic chef," Storm told the others. "Assuming he hasn't lost his touch in twelve years."

"You just can't help yourself, can you Stormy?" said Gambit. "Which reminds me, I need to clean up my bike."

"Ahh yes," said Logan. "The Harley in the back room of the garage."

"My poor neglected baby," Gambit sighed.

"Be happy to give you a hand restoring her..."

"Done."

"I should clean up my lab too," said Forge.

"Oh no you don't," Storm said. "You'll be lucky if I ever let you back in there again."

Gambit snickered and then yawned again.

"Merde," he muttered. "Je suis desole. It's been a long day."

"You can have one of the guest rooms," Storm said. "We'll organise something more permanent later, or were you still planning on leaving?"

"Already been here twelve years longer than I intended, chere," Gambit replied with a slight smile. "I doubt a little longer's going to hurt. Besides, I think I - both of us - need some time to get used to whatever may have changed in that time. Hey, do you know if we've been declared dead or anything?"

"I do not know," Storm admitted. "I never reported you missing. We shall check up on it tomorrow."

"I bet I've earned a stack of interest," Gambit mused.

"Perhaps you'll retire from stealing then?" Storm asked with a teasing smile.

"Maybe," Gambit replied. "I'd need to get up to date on security systems if I were to go back into it. For some reason no one ever bothers to upgrade security around here. I'm twelve years out of date and I still could have come up with a system that would have given you more notice about Stryker's attack. Speaking of which, is that bastard dead yet? Because you promised me you were going to kill him, Logan -"

"I did?"

"- and the next thing I know, he's invading this place. I mean, what was the point of me taking you to Three Mile Island, and you bringing it down in ruins, if you don't even kill the guy you went there to kill in the first place?"

"Have we met before?" Logan asked.

"About seventeen years ago 'cept you went and lost your memory," Gambit replied then yawned again. "Desole, I'm just going to go to bed. I don't suppose you would mind showing me to my room, Roguey?

"Get used to that," Forge advised Rogue. "Remy's got a crush on you."

Storm hid her smile.

"I admit it," Gambit said, admiring even the skeptical look on Rogue's face. "And who wouldn't? She's a fine woman. Smart, sassy, fun, sexy, brave, adventurous -"

"Hey, didn't you kiss her before?" Bobby cut in. "You know, and not get absorbed?"

"Uh well, I was going to save it until I knew for sure," Rogue said tentatively, "but I've been working on getting my powers under control. I didn't even know for certain it worked until Remy decided to kiss me."

"Want me to kiss you again?" Gambit asked, leaning over to her. "Because I know I want to kiss you."

"Are you always this forward?" Rogue demanded.

"Not always, but I'm not always this tired either," he replied, carefully standing to his feet.

"Here," Storm said as she stood and walked to his side. "Let me give you a hand."

"Merci, Stormy," he said resting heavily on her.

While the others got into a discussion about how Rogue had been teaching herself to control her powers, Storm escorted Gambit to one of the bedrooms and helped him settle in.

"Stormy?" he said as he laid down.

"Yes, Remy?"

"I was wrong. Family isn't better the further away you are," Gambit said softly. "I missed having you in my life."

"I missed you too," Storm replied.

Gambit sighed and closed his eyes. Storm started for the door.

"You have a problem, Stormy," he said as she turned the handle. "I don't know how close or serious you and Logan are, but Forge was planning on proposing. I think he still wants to, but seeing you two together broke his heart. I get that after all this time, it was perfectly natural for you to move on, so just letting you know."

"Thank you," Storm said quietly, the only words she knew to say to that unexpected news.

* * *

Forge, still being wide awake, spent the rest of the day reacquainting himself with all the sensations he had missed for the last twelve years. Eating, drinking, having a shower, feeling carpet beneath his feet, going to the toilet, breathing, just to name a few.

He was standing on the balcony, enjoying "standing in the breeze" when Storm came out to join him.

"Enjoying being back in the real world again?" she asked.

"Yeah," Forge replied. "It's funny. I've seen this view so many times, but it's amazing how different it is when you've had smell and touch cut off. Even this railing… the pollen in the air, the breeze… I feel like I've stepped from the black and white world back into colour again."

Storm laughed softly.

"I still love you," said Forge after a moment of silence.

Storm let out a long, slow breath.

"I still love you too," she replied. "But Forge, I –"

"You and Logan," Forge interjected.

"I love him too," Storm said. "It was not easy to move on, Forge. Moving on meant giving up on you. It meant accepting that you were not coming back. And it took a very special man to convince me to put my heart on the line again."

Forge nodded slowly.

"Yeah," he said dejectedly. "I thought that might be the case."

"Still," Storm went on as she wrapped her arm around him. "I am glad you are back and alive and in one piece, Forge. And Remy as well."

"So am I."

"You're both so important to me," Storm went on. "When you disappeared I…"

"I know, I saw," said Forge bleakly. "I never wanted to hurt you, 'Ro. It killed me to see you like that."

"I've lost too many people," Storm said. "It's nice to have a couple of them return to me for a change."

"I promise we'll hang around longer than Jean did," Forge replied solemnly.

"I find it… difficult to think of the woman who came back as Jean. She was more Phoenix and less the person I befriended."

"Point taken."

"Still, even though we cannot pick up where we left off, Forge, I look forward to having you in my life again for many years to come."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Gambit would have liked to have made Rogue the priority over the weeks that followed. Unfortunately, necessity dictated that he get his affairs in order. Although he attempted to make time for Rogue – being quite familiar with her routine – he found he hardly saw her. He was extremely frustrated by this as he had been rather looking forward to having an actual relationship with her by now, instead of still admiring her from afar.

Rogue would have liked to be able to say she had complete control over her powers now. Sadly, her absorption tendencies were erratic. If she deliberately attempted to absorb someone she could. If she deliberately tried not to absorb someone, she could touch them without any problems. If she wasn't concentrating, or got distracted or someone touched her without warning, however, there was a 50-50 chance of absorption and Rogue found it highly frustrating. Still, her friends were supportive, encouraging and helped her to practice.

"Whoa," Jubilee said as she shook off the dizzy spell.

"Sorry," Rogue replied quickly, pulling her shirt back down over her stomach.

Rogue had reached up to get the coffee out of one of the top cupboards. Her shirt had lifted up in the process, baring about two inches of skin about her waist in the process. Jubilee hadn't been able to resist the urge.

"No, no," Jubilee said. "I was the one who decided to poke you in the ribs. I knew getting absorbed was a possibility."

Rogue grinned at her.

"Well," she said. "At least it was only a possibility and not a certainly, right?"

"Exactly," Jubilee said cheerfully. "Just like one day your powers are going to behave themselves and not turn themselves on at all without your express permission."

"I sure hope so."

"I know so."

"Thanks Jubes," Rogue said. "Coffee?"

"Yes please. I need a little pick-me-up after a near-coma experience," Jubilee joked.

"On second thoughts, no caffeinated coffee for you," Rogue teased her.

"Aww."

* * *

"Marie! You have a visitor," called her boss, Adam, from the front of the garage.

"Coming," Rogue replied as she grabbed a rag to wipe her hands on.

"Make it quick," Adam advised her.

Rogue gave a nod and turned the corner to find Gambit standing there.

"Hey chere," he greeted. "So you go by 'Marie' around here, hein?"

"It's the name I wanted to go by at the time, seeing as how I was cured and all," Rogue replied shortly. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Just wanted to see where you worked," Gambit replied with a shrug. "Putting a place to the name and all that."

"That's nice for you. Go away," Rogue snapped.

Gambit blinked, having not expected that reaction at all.

"Chere –" he began.

"Seriously, must you follow me everywhere?" she demanded. "Can't I just have one place you don't have anything to do with?"

"It wasn't my intention to intrude, Roguey –"

"I don't care what your intentions are," Rogue retorted hotly. "Beat it, Swamp Rat. And don't let me catch you here again or I'll take to that pretty face of yours with a monkey wrench and a pair of pliers!"

"There a problem?" asked Adam, entering the room once more.

"Non, non," Gambit replied, his hands up in the air. "I was just leaving. Didn't mean to bother you, chere. I'll see you later."

"Don't remind me," Rogue muttered as she headed back out into the garage.

"Who was that?" asked Adam.

"House mate," Rogue replied darkly. "Won't leave me alone."

"Huh. He gives you any more trouble, just let us know."

"Thanks, but I can take care of it myself."

"With a monkey wrench and a pair of pliers, so I heard," Adam replied with a slight smile.

Rogue allowed herself a giggle.

* * *

Gambit was in the garage at Xaviers when Rogue returned from work. Rogue didn't even look at him as she pulled off her helmet.

"Rogue," he said as he pushed off the hood of the car he'd been sitting on and made his way over to her.

"I'm not talking to you," she informed him as she strode towards the door.

"Then why did you just talk to me?" Gambit asked, moving quickly to close the distance.

"To inform you that you're wasting your breath," Rogue retorted, stepping out into the hallway.

"Doesn't sound like it to me."

Rogue ignored him. Gambit sighed and moved up along side her, his hand going to the small of her back automatically.

"Chere," he said seriously, "if I had realised you didn't want me there, I wouldn't have gone by."

Rogue pressed her lips together and walked faster towards the stairs. To her irritation (partly because she liked it), Gambit kept up. As Rogue ran up the stairs, Gambit followed but was forced to drop his hand before his fingers fell somewhere he _knew_ she wouldn't appreciate.

"Rogue, please," said Gambit as soon as they hit the top of the stairs. "It's been over a month since we got out. I've been trying to have a conversation with you all this time and, well I _thought_ I'd been just missing you all the time, but evidentially you've just been avoiding me. Come on, Rogue, what did I do?"

"What did you do?" Rogue said, turning on him. "What did you _do?_ I'll tell you what you did!"

Gambit reeled back slightly under her angry glare.

"You stalked me for two years," Rogue said as she poked her finger at him, her voice getting louder with every word. "You've been in my bedroom and because that zapping thing conked you out, you've been _sleeping_ in my bedroom. You invaded my personal space, invited yourself to my personal time and to top everything off, the same day we met you invited me into bed with you. Why do you damn well think I've been avoiding you?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I suppose those are quite reasonable grounds for avoiding someone -" Gambit began.

"Damn straight they are," Rogue said, turning her back on him once more. "At least I knew you never followed me to work. Until, of course, today, when you just _had_ to show up there too."

"Je suis desole," Gambit replied, walking around in front of her. "I just wanted to talk to you, chere. You've been so important to me - me and Forge - these last couple of years. Without you we never would have escaped that lifeless hellhole and for that I will be eternally grateful -"

"So, what? You express your gratitude by propositioning me? Like I should be honoured to sleep with you?" Rogue snapped.

"Well, now that you mention it, there are some women out there -"

Rogue started to backhand him, but Gambit caught her wrist with two millimetres to spare.

"I jest," he said hurriedly. "Can we just say that my social skills are a little rusty and start over?"

He didn't actually think that, but it was plainly obvious that he hadn't exactly handled their first meeting very well. He wasn't used to making bad first impressions on women. Somehow he needed to turn things around.

"Rusty? Is that what you call it?" Rogue demanded as she jerked her hand away. "Non-existent more like it. I don't care what you do. You've intruded on my life quite enough as it is. Just leave me alone."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're gorgeous when you're angry?"

Before Rogue could think of a reply (no one had ever told her anything of the sort; they usually made themselves scarce), Gambit had wrapped one arm about her waist, cupped her face with his other hand and kissed her lips gently.

"I grew up on the streets of New Orleans," Gambit said quietly, taking advantage of her stunned silence. "I got by mostly by picking pockets and scrounging for food. I spent rainy days in the library, just to get out of the cold. I learned the Dewey Decimal System by heart by the time I was six. At eight I met my best friend, Bella Donna. At ten I was caught trying to pick the pocket of the head of the New Orleans Thieves Guild, Jean-Luc LeBeau, who adopted me as a result -"

"What makes you think -" Rogue began sharply, in an attempt to regain control of the conversation.

"Incidentally, Bella Donna was the daughter of the head of the New Orleans _Assassins_ Guild," Gambit went on as if she hadn't said anything. "The two Guilds had been at war with each other and when our fathers saw how well we got along, they decided to marry us off. When I was fourteen I was abducted by Stryker. I was stuck there for two years before I succeeded in escaping. On my way back home, I met Stormy. She was only eleven or twelve at the time. Cute kid. Now she's older than me, go figure. We went on a crime spree all the way to New Orleans. She became almost like a sister to me."

There was a fond look on Gambit's face and Rogue had the impression he was remembering that much younger Storm.

"Two days after my eighteenth birthday, Logan came looking for me. He found out I had escaped from Stryker's island and he wanted me to take him there so he could kill 'everyone I hate in this world'. And quite frankly, I think the guy still owes me because Victor Creed's still alive and kicking, and no one could give me a definite answer on Stryker's dead or alive status," Gambit said cynically. "A week after that, I was getting married. Or I was supposed to. Bella Donna's brother, Julien, hated my guts and took exception to the wedding. He challenged me to a duel to the death. Guess who won."

Rogue said nothing. She only held his gaze.

"Marius - Belle's father - he was a little upset as you can imagine. Bella Donna talked him and the Assassin's council into having me exiled instead of executed -"

"Wait, _you_ were being punished -"

"- in order to preserve peace between our Guilds. It was a full exile. I can never return to New Orleans, nor am I allowed any contact with my family. I spent the next few years of my life stealing, gambling and, well, sleeping around. So pretty much everything I was doing as a teenager only without any family or mutant experimentation involved. One day I finally accepted Stormy's invitation to visit her here, where she had given up a life of crime for control over her power and the chance to fight for mutant rights," Gambit said with a slight smile. "I only meant to be here for a week."

"And you stayed here twelve years," Rogue finished.

"And that's my life story," Gambit said with a nod. "In addition to stealing, poker and women, I also like motorcycles, cooking, pool -"

"_Star Trek_," Rogue offered slyly.

"Shh, don't spread it around," Gambit replied, grinning at her. "It's supposed to be my guilty secret."

"This coming from a professional _thief_?" Rogue queried.

"Oui. Me being a thief isn't that big a secret, chere. I need to get paid somehow," he pointed out.

"Well, I suppose that makes sense -"

"Actually it makes dollars. Lots of lots of dollars. And occasionally pounds, francs and yen."

"- in a very twisted sort of way," Rogue finished, giving Gambit a cynical look. "Also, that was a horrendous pun."

"I try. So, Roguey, would you do me the privilege," Gambit said, noting the smile that quirked at Rogue's mouth, "of letting me take you out this Saturday?"

"Now why would I want to do a thing like that?" Rogue drawled.

"We seem to have started out on the wrong foot, and I would appreciate it if you would let me do something about this low opinion you have of me," Gambit replied sincerely.

Rogue sighed and was silent for a moment.

"I think you're a creep," she said finally. "But, I suppose to be fair, you couldn't exactly knock on my door and introduce yourself like a proper gentleman. Very well. Just make it count, Swamp Rat. I may not give you another chance."

* * *

"Okay," said Storm as she stepped into Forge's lab where Forge and Gambit were waiting for her the following day. "What is it that you wanted to show me?"

"This," Forge replied, indicating a set of floor plans and schematics on the table.

"It's way past time security around this place got upgraded," Gambit said firmly. "We don't want a repeat of the Stryker invasion."

"Agreed," said Storm. "So what did you have in mind?"

Gambit and Forge talked Storm through the first part of their upgrade plans, primarily focused around the new sensors and defences.

"Now this is the best part," Forge said cheerfully, "when any one of these alarms gets sounded, the mansion will go to yellow alert. If it's more than one, red alert."

"And if a travelling salesman shows up at the gates, that's blue alert," Gambit joked.

"Idiot," said Forge. "Now obviously when one of these alerts goes off, we need to make sure everyone knows right? Which brings us to the next part."

Forge pointed to one of the schematics.

"We install these computer interfaces throughout the mansion," Forge said. "There's a light panel here which'll glow when we go to one of the alerts. We'll have an actual alarm noise as well, of course."

"And the best part," Gambit said, "is that we can do everything from these interfaces. Answer phones. Open the gates when no one's in the office to do it. During an alarm we can instantly check what triggered said alarm."

"And when they're on standby we can use 'em for school notices. No more pin boards," Forge added.

"Pin boards are so last decade anyway," Gambit said with a grin.

Storm looked at Forge and Gambit with a bemused expression on her face, down at the plans, and then back at her friends.

"This is all part of some diabolical plan to turn the mansion into a starship, isn't it?" she asked them.

"Any similarities to _Star Trek_ are purely coincidental," Gambit said.

"Yeah, right," Storm replied. "Well, I'm not sure about the answering phones part, but the rest of it sounds good. I want a full plan on how you expect the human aspect of the new security to work –"

Forge handed her a wad of paper stapled together.

"Thank you," said Storm.

"We had a lot of time on our hands," Forge admitted.

"Just not enough paper," Gambit added. "Or writing implements."

"I'm thinking of programming a notepad into my cybernetic arm," said Forge.

"We've been spending all this time trying to get our thoughts on paper," Gambit said with a nod.

"You can imagine how hard that was for Remy," Forge added with a pitying smirk. "Thinking is such a chore for him."

"I know," Gambit said with a melodramatic sigh. "Trying to dumb down all my ideas so that anyone can understand them is a real pain in the a-"

"Ahem," Storm cut in, "I'll look over this and get back to you, but I imagine we'll go ahead with it. Any estimate on how long it'll –"

Forge cut Storm off with another sheet of paper.

"That also has all the things we'll need too," Forge said.

"Good," said Storm. "I'll let you know. Oh, and by the way, going ahead with these plans does not give you two license to rename the med lab 'sick bay', or the elevator 'the turbolift' or the danger room 'the holodeck'."

"Why would we want to do that?" asked Forge innocently.

Storm gave Forge a look that clearly said "pull the other one" and soon departed.

"I think she knows us too well," Forge said as soon as Storm was out of sight.

"Oui," Gambit agreed. "You know, she didn't say anything about renaming the med lab 'the infirmary'."

"True," Forge agreed. "And that's what they call it in _Deep Space Nine_. She didn't say anything about renaming the office 'the bridge' either."

"Or renaming her room 'the Captain's Quarters'."

"Or renaming the dining hall 'the mess hall'."

"Or the kitchen 'Quark's Bar'."

"That's a great idea!" Forge said. "I really want to call it that now."

Gambit chuckled.

"I kind of want to rename my lab 'Engineering'," Forge went on, looking around. "I don't think it's quite big enough though."

"We'll just have to get you a bigger lab," Gambit said. "Hey what do you think about naming the hanger 'the docking bay'?"

"Better idea," said Forge. "We can call the hanger 'Docking Bay 1' and the garage 'Docking Bay 2'."

"I like. We should start referring to the Blackbird as a runabout. Or better yet, the Delta Flyer."

"That's brilliant!"

There was silence for a moment.

"We are such huge geeks," said Gambit with a sigh.

"Yeah," Forge agreed.

"Sad, isn't it?"

"Yep. What do you think we should rename Cerebro?" Forge asked.

"I have no idea," Gambit replied. "The warp core?"

Forge laughed and Gambit grinned at him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"She cleaned up pretty good, huh?" Rogue said as she walked into the garage and noted Gambit leaning against his newly restored motorcycle.

"Almost as good as new," Gambit replied proudly.

"Yeah," Rogue drawled as she grabbed her helmet. "Pity she's a Harley."

"What's the supposed to mean?" Gambit asked.

"The words 'noise maker' come to mind."

"I'm compensating for something."

Rogue laughed despite herself. The garage door opened and they headed out. Rogue followed Gambit to the restaurant he picked out: the expensive type she usually avoided. The host was most polite as he lead them to their table and handed them the menus. Rogue gaped at the prices in the menu. Gambit noted the look on her face and chuckled.

"Atrocious, isn't it?" he said good-naturedly. "I think they've doubled in price since I was last here twelve years ago with Stormy. Although it's hard to say for sure, as I think some of the options have changed."

"Huh. You know, I'm not impressed by money," Rogue drawled and then added under her breath: "Especially when it's dirty money."

"Well, if I'm going to crash and burn, I may as well go out with a bang, no?" Gambit replied.

Rogue smirked and Gambit took that as a sign that not all was lost.

"Besides," he went on. "The food is rather good here."

"I'll take your word for it."

They ordered their food and as the waiter departed they lapsed into silence.

"So," Gambit said, "how's work?"

Rogue shrugged. "It's fine. How's... well, did you have a lot of trouble getting your affairs sorted?"

"Actually it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be," he replied. "Hadn't been declared dead or anything which made things easier and at the same time, a little sad that no one missed me."

"Except Storm," Rogue pointed out.

"Oui, except Stormy," he agreed. "And I suspect she just didn't want to admit we were gone."

"Yeah. Why do you keep calling her 'Stormy' even though she doesn't like it?"

"I think it suits her," Gambit replied with a shrug, his eyes never leaving hers. "Besides, the fact that she doesn't like it is just incentive to keep calling her that."

"Uh huh."

Their drinks arrived then and Rogue was relieved as it gave her an excuse to look away from him. The way Gambit looked at her was a little disconcerting. He looked at her like he might a lover, which might have been flattering if it weren't for the fact that they didn't have anything worth calling a relationship. Regardless of the circumstances, he had stalked her around for two years. Gambit wasn't a man in love looking at his soulmate. He was a man in lust, gazing at the object of his affections.

The worst part of it was Rogue actually liked it. Not even Bobby had looked at her with such intensity.

"So," she said as the waiter departed, "are you planning on staying at Xaviers or were you going to move on?"

"I have no real reason to leave right now," Gambit replied, "and plenty to stay."

"I would have thought you'd be looking forward to stealing things again," Rogue said, almost nastily.

"Thinking about it, but just like smoking there's not real reason for me to take it up again other than the fact that I enjoy it."

"You used to smoke?" Rogue inquired, her disdain apparent.

"Like a chimney," he said with a grin. "But after twelve years of not being able to suck in air or blow it going again kind of forced me out of the habit. Drove me crazy not being able to smoke at all, but now that I can, I find I don't really want to so... go figure."

"Huh. Think the same'll apply to stealing?"

"Hard to say, cherie. I was a thief since day one and I'm not ashamed to admit that," Gambit said firmly.

"Yet you're ashamed to admit you like _Star Trek_," Rogue pointed out.

"Coming out as a geek tends to ruin the whole 'bad boy' image, Roguey," he said slyly. "Besides, I don't recall hearing any admissions coming from you."

"I haven't even finished watching everything yet," she replied primly.

"Chere, you wouldn't have gotten past _Deep Space Nine_ if it hadn't interested you," Gambit pointed out. "You sure wouldn't have gone to a convention either, good opportunity to experiment with body paint or not."

Rogue looked away, red-faced with embarrassment and feeling sick. She set her eyes on the door and contemplated leaving. Obviously, she'd been right about him.

"I have to say," Gambit went on as he leaned across the table, "you impressed me."

"I'm not really sure I want to hear -"

"That was a very brave thing for you to do. It couldn't have been easy to walk into a crowded place with all that bare skin, body paint or no."

For a moment there was silence between them. Gambit knew quite well what she thought he had been talking about when he mentioned he was impressed. For that matter it had been hard to miss her antagonism tonight. She didn't want to like him, which told Gambit that she did.

"No, it wasn't," Rogue said finally. "I was a nervous wreck and I nearly turned around and headed home."

"So, why didn't you?"

"I saw other people in costume," Rogue said wryly. "There was this whole group of people dressed as Klingons -"

"Yeah, you get those," Gambit said with a grin.

"You go to conventions?"

"Whenever I'm in the area, or can arrange to be."

"Ever go in costume?"

"Me? Non. With my eyes, I don't need a costume."

"Well, that just sounds like an excuse to me," Rogue said with a smirk.

"Yet you will be amazed at the number of people who have come up to me and asked me what species I am," Gambit teased her.

Rogue laughed.

"What do you tell them?" she asked.

"The truth. I'm a mutant."

"Yeah? How does that go?"

"Great, actually," he replied with a grin. "They all think it's cool. Hell, I even ended up talking to this one guy who was making a fan film and got all excited when he found out I could make things explode. He was deadset on getting me to help out."

"Did you?"

"Couldn't even if I wanted to. I was leaving the country the next day."

"Well, that would make it difficult."

"Still, I highly recommend the _Star Trek_ community for making new friends," Gambit went on. "If anything I think the human fans are jealous they're not mutants too."

Rogue laughed. Their food arrived and they spend the next few minutes eating in silence.

"How is it?" he asked.

"Good," Rogue replied.

"Bon."

"What about yours?"

"Fine."

"So, umm... I'm not sure if I even want to ask this..." Rogue said, avoiding Gambit's eyes. "When you were trapped, just how much did you, that is to say, well..."

"How seriously did I follow you around? I didn't follow you into the shower, if that's what you're asking," Gambit offered.

"Yeah, that's what I'm asking," Rogue replied in relief.

"Effectively I was with you 24/7," Gambit told her. "I didn't follow you into the bathroom, though, and I left the room when you got changed. I wasn't following you around just for the sake of it either, chere. We had no way of knowing if the plan to get you to absorb me was even going to work. I kept following you in the hopes that I might see a sign - anything - that you had gotten something from me. What's more, if you had gotten my message and went into Forge's lab we needed to know that too. Wouldn't want to miss our chance to escape."

Rogue nodded slowly.

"I chose to zap you at night for a couple of reasons. First of all was that I could pretty much only do it once a day,' Gambit went on. "The second was that in the beginning you would occasionally have sessions with the Professor. We thought that if I zapped your right before a session, maybe the Professor might find me in there. Obviously I couldn't do that if I zapped you first thing in the morning. The other advantage of right before you went to bed was that we thought your subconscious might have a chance to work on it. Then too, if we were both asleep at the same time, I wouldn't miss anything."

"I guess that makes sense," she conceded. "That doesn't make it any easier."

"I wasn't interested in breaching your privacy, chere," Gambit said seriously. "But we were desperate and we were out of ideas. Look, I realise that this makes things awkward, but the femme I got to know in that time; she is tres belle in every way. She is smart, brave, exciting, fun, passionate -"

"Remy, I -"

"I want to get to know her better," Gambit said, reaching over and taking her hand. "I want to be a part of her life - of _your_ life, Rogue. And for you to be a part of mine."

And there he was, looking at her with such intensity Rogue fancied his eyes even glowed. She licked her lips and looked down at their joined hands.

"What series of _Star Trek_ do you like best?" she blurted out in an effort to change the subject.

Gambit took his hand away as Rogue continued to avoid his eyes.

"The original," he replied.

"Really? I like DS9 better."

"Well, you sure didn't get that from me," he joked.

"Evidentially," Rogue drawled. "I can barely watch the _Original Series_. It's just so... fake."

"Aww, but that's half of what makes it so good, chere," Gambit replied. "I don't see how you can like DS9 the best though. They spend most of their time on a space station for goodness sake."

"I like the characters," she said primly.

"Jake Sisko in particular?" Gambit teased her.

"Actually I like Jadzia Dax - wait," Rogue said, narrowing her eyes at Gambit. "What made you say 'Jake'?"

"Well, I was there when you watched _Star Trek_ for the first time, Roguey," Gambit replied with a grin. "I believe your exact words were 'he's cute'."

"Well, he is," Rogue said stiffly. "And he grew up into a total spunk."

"Wanna hear my list of things I have in common with him?"

"Not really."

Gambit chuckled. "So, why do you like Jadzia?"

"Actually, it's more Dax I like," Rogue said. "I mean, at first I thought the whole Trill symbiont thing was a little too close to home, but then it got me to thinking. The Dax symbiont has all the memories and experiences of all its previous and current hosts, right? And while Jadzia - and Ezri in season seven - go on to live their own lives, they still have access to those memories and experiences, and they use them to enrich their lives rather than to... to drag them down and be destroyed by them. I mean, look at me, Remy. I have absorbed that many people, acquired that many skills and power and memories. It's just a mess in here. I know it's all fiction, but... I guess it's nice to think that there might be a way for me to turn my situation around and let all these psyches enrich my life too, instead of driving me insane."

"Chere, I think that's the best reasoning for a favourite character I've ever heard in my life."

Rogue laughed softly.

"No, seriously," Gambit said. "Especially with _Star Trek_, because - amongst other things - it's about looking to a better future."

"It... it might not even be possible to twist my mutation that way," Rogue said quickly. "I can't even stop having nightmares -"

"Rogue, you have a choice. I know that the Professor was working with you to create some wall thing to block the voices out. I have no idea where you are on that, but I do know that you shouldn't give up trying. If Dax - fiction or no - gives you the hope and the inspiration you need to keep trying, then you should hold onto that. Don't let your psyches give you trouble any more. If there's a way to make them stop, if there's a way to make them enhance your life instead of treading you down, I know you'll find it."

A smile appeared on Rogue's face.

"Thank you Remy," she said softly.

* * *

"How'd it go with the Cajun last night?" asked Logan.

Rogue let out a long breath as she leaned on the side of the car.

"Okay, I guess," she said finally.

"Okay?" Logan pressed as he inspected the car engine.

"I don't know. I was all prepared to hate him and now..." Rogue trailed off and spread her hands.

"He's rained on your parade and given you reason to like him," Logan finished. "Hand me the belt, please."

"Yeah," Rogue replied irritably as she passed the fan belt over.

"Is that so bad?" Logan asked as he fitted the car part.

"I keep asking myself that," Rogue admitted with a sigh. "Thing is, there were moments last night when I thought, hey maybe this could work out after all. And then he would go and spoil it by saying... something."

"Like what?"

"Things that reminded me that he stalked me for two years and he's seen me naked and knows things about me no one should know except myself," Rogue replied sourly.

Logan grunted as he stood up straight again. "That should do it. Mind turning her on?"

Rogue nodded and sat in the driver's seat. She turned on the engine and left it running until Logan said to turn it off and he pulled down the hood.

"I don't know what to tell you, kid," Logan said as he wiped his hands. "You can either try to look past it and see where things take you, or you can push the guy away."

Rogue chewed her bottom lip.

"I do know that he and 'Ro are very close," Logan went on. "You're not going to be able to avoid him all the time."

* * *

"Hey Rogue," said Forge, catching up to her in the hall, "I was wondering if you had started watching _Enterprise_ yet?"

Forge and Gambit had been delighted when – in their search for any new _Star Trek_ movie that came out while they had been stuck in the alternate dimension – they discovered there had been a fifth series made. They'd watched the movies, but while they had been busy getting their lives sorted out again they'd put off watching the new series.

"No," Rogue replied.

"Okay great," said Forge. "Remy and I were planning on watching the first episode tonight. Did you want to join us?"

"Sure. Where –"

"My room, seven," Forge said with a slight smile. "All the TVs in this place are going to be taken up by everyone else and Remy doesn't want to be caught watching it, even though everyone already knows."

Rogue chuckled.

"Well, that's good," she said with a slight smile. "Because there's no way we were going to crash in my room again."

"Wouldn't dream of suggesting it," Forge assured her. "Besides, it lost something watching it on your tiny laptop screen."

"My laptop is not _that_ tiny," Rogue replied. "But I can see how it would be a deterrent for more than one person."

"Yep," Forge said and rubbed his hands together. "I'm really looking forward to this. Mostly."

"Mostly?" Rogue asked.

"Well, Remy and I are a little dubious about a prequel series to the _Original Series_," Forge replied. "The premise, combined with the fact that it had low ratings and the first movie to follow it rebooted the series doesn't exactly make it sound all that promising."

"Yeah," Rogue said with a nod. "I was thinking the same thing, actually. It was part of the reason why I'd decided to watch all the other series first."

"Oh well," Forge said. "If it turns out to be crap, at least we know the company will be good, right?"

Rogue laughed.

* * *

Thus it was that five after seven that night, Rogue knocked on Forge's door. Forge, dressed in his pajamas, opened the door for her.

"Hey, come in, come in," he said.

Rogue tucked a lock of hair behind her head as she stepped inside and noted Gambit was already there, sitting on the bed in front of Forge's television. He was also in pajamas, but while Forge was wearing both shirt and pants, Gambit was just in pants.

"Hey," Rogue said as Forge closed the door. "I didn't realise this was a pajama party."

"Well," said Gambit as he grinned at her, "we figured it was only fair. I mean, even though we were more interested in _Star Trek_ than in what you were wearing, we did see you in your pajamas... and other things."

Rogue couldn't stop the smile that appeared on her face.

"Well, thanks," she said. "I appreciate the thought."

"And the view," Gambit said with a wink, patting the space beside him. "You can admit it."

Rogue smirked as she sat down next to Gambit, resisting the urge to run her eyes over his bare chest. Whatever she felt about Gambit himself – she hadn't entirely decided yet – she did find him very good looking.

"Yeah, I can admit it," Rogue drawled. "This is an awesome TV you have here, Forge."

Gambit laughed.

"Thanks," said Forge, sitting beside her, remote in hand. "Digital, surround sound, picks up every channel. And I mean, _every_ channel."

"Although why you'd want to watch what they're showing in Sweden, I have no idea. Can you even speak Swedish?" Gambit asked. "Wait, what am I saying? Everyone knows Swedish women are hot..."

"See?" said Forge. "This is what I put up with for twelve years."

"Then why do you still hang out with him?" asked Rogue.

"Because other than you he's the only person here with good taste in TV," Forge replied. "Ready?"

Gambit and Rogue agreed and Forge hit the play button. The first episode of _Enterprise_ began. While they watched a boy painting a model spaceship whilst talking to his father, Gambit took the liberty of wrapped his arm across Rogue's shoulders. Rogue pressed her lips together, but decided to ignore it.

And then they got to the opening theme.

"Are they... _singing_?" asked Forge.

"I think I've heard that song before," Rogue said.

"Mon dieu," Gambit muttered. "It's worse than I thought."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

It became a weekly event for Rogue to join Forge and Gambit for _Star Trek_. Every night they met, they would watch a full disc of episodes, with exceptions made for 'part one's. Forge and Gambit were always in their pajamas although Gambit would often joke about showing up in his underwear.

"Remy, you showing up at my door in nothing but your pajama pants is bad enough," Forge informed him. "I don't want to see you in nothing but your underwear."

"What about you, Roguey?" asked Gambit. "Do you -"

"No," Rogue replied.

"Shot down," Forge teased Gambit.

Gambit just shrugged it off with a grin.

Aside from things like shoes, socks and gloves, Rogue was always fully clothed on these nights. Nevertheless, the close-proximity brought on by three people on a double bed (one of whom insisted on being shirtless) meant that Rogue ended up absorbing both of them on a couple of occasions. The first time Rogue absorbed Gambit she could actually feel large holes she had in her copy of his psyche filling up. It was a strange sensation, one Rogue felt was the equivalent of having a handful of strategically placed chocolates and then someone dumping a whole vat of liquid chocolate on top.

"So," said Gambit, "you're comparing my mind to chocolate."

"Don't let it get to your head, Swamp Rat," Rogue replied dryly.

Rogue and Forge got along well enough. Rogue found it easier to be comfortable around Forge, although aside from the X-men the only thing they had in common was _Star Trek_. Gambit was much harder to get used to. The more she got to know him, she more she liked him, and it helped that they had a lot of common interests. The problem lay in the 'getting to know him' part and the fact that he knew a few too many intimate details of her life. If Forge knew any such details he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. Gambit, on the other hand, would not stop flirting with her, playing with her and watching her adoringly with those bedroom eyes of his. Rogue was flattered, but at the same time a little put off by all the attention.

* * *

"You're looking a little bogged down over there, Bobby," Rogue teased him as he walked through the door, his hands full of books.

"I'm telling you, Rogue," Bobby replied, "you may be onto something with the whole, skipping tertiary studies thing."

"It's because I'm already way smarter than you college students," Rogue said with a grin. "I don't need a degree to tell me that."

"Well, since you are so smart," said Bobby, glancing over at Gambit as he strode over towards them, "then tell me why I'm doing this again."

"Because," Rogue replied as Gambit slipped his arm about her waist, "you got it into your head that you wanted to be an accountant."

"What was I thinking?" Bobby joked.

He attempted to ignore Gambit starting to kiss Rogue up her neck and then looked away when Rogue batted at him.

"Anyway," said Bobby uncomfortably. "I'd better go. Homework."

"Good luck with that," Rogue replied.

"Thanks."

"Dammit, Swamp Rat," Bobby heard Rogue complain as he passed, "would you knock that off?"

"Now why would I want to do a thing like that?" Gambit asked.

* * *

Rogue shot up in bed and gasped for breath as a cold sweat dripped down her forehead. A round of uncharacteristic expletives emerged from her lips as she attempted to calm down and file the bad memories away.

After a time, she laid back down in bed again, but found no matter how she tossed and turned she couldn't get back to sleep again.

"This has got to stop," she muttered to herself as she got up.

Rogue started towards the door and then stopped.

"No," she said to herself. "No, I'm not going to go out there and watch TV with Jones again. I'm so damn sick and tired of this. There's nothing wrong with wanting a decent night's sleep."

With her fists clenched, Rogue looked around her darkened room. She sighed, sat back down on the bed again and buried her head in her hands. Stupid Magneto. She didn't need to be bothered with his memories from a million years ago. If she had to have psyche-induced dreams, why couldn't she dream about his happy memories? Or didn't he have any of those?

Rogue looked up and considered thoughtfully. Slowly she laid back down on her bed again. With no idea of whether it would actually work or not, Rogue went through her psyche's and finally settled on Kitty's. No one had a 100% happy life, of course, but Kitty had never been experimented on or lived through the holocaust or anything. Rogue was certain even the worst of Kitty's memories would be a picnic by comparison.

With Kitty's psyche pulled to the fore of her mind, Rogue closed her eyes and drifted off back to sleep.

* * *

Jubilee looked at the new computer interface on the wall and nodded her head slowly. The interface was black and smooth, with a light on top and a number of brightly coloured flat buttons on the surface. On the part of the interface that worked as the monitor there was a copy of the school's new electronic notice board.

"Well," Jubilee said. "It looks very _Star Treky_."

"Is that even a word?" asked Kitty.

"Is now," Jubilee said.

* * *

Rogue opened her bedroom door and gave a yelp when she found Gambit on the other side.

"Desole, ma chere," he said. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"You never do," Rogue replied tersely.

"So," Gambit said, taking her hands. "You ready for a fun-filled day of dirt-biking?"

"Sure."

* * *

Jubilee sat down across from Rogue at the table with a big silly grin on her face a couple of weeks later. Storm, Logan, Kitty and Piotr had joined Rogue for breakfast, which was about the only meal of the day that Rogue could guarantee would be Gambit-free.

"So?" Jubilee inquired.

Rogue looked up at her. She could practically see Jubilee wearing her "gossip queen" crown.

"So... what?" asked Rogue.

"So I saw you going into a certain boy's bedroom last night," Jubilee said gleefully in a sing-song voice. "What's going on with you and Forge?"

"Forge?" Storm repeated. "Rogue?"

Rogue glanced at Storm (so did Logan) and then back at Jubilee.

"What do you think is going on?" Rogue asked blandly.

"Aww come on. You can tell me," Jubilee coaxed.

Piotr smiled and shook his head in amusement at Jubilee on the warpath again.

"Sure, and everyone else in this room," Rogue pointed out.

"Ah ha!" Jubilee said triumphantly. "So you don't deny going to Forge's room and staying there for a couple of _hours_."

"What would be the point in that?" Rogue asked. "You obviously already know I was."

"Oh come on, Rogue!" Jubilee exclaimed. "You can just leave me hanging like that. How long as this been going on?"

Rogue was silent for a moment and then a sly smile crossed her lips.

"Oh," she said nonchalantly, "about three months."

"Omigod!" Jubilee squealed, "and you didn't tell us?"

Storm looked down at her plate and Logan eyed her carefully.

"I didn't think you'd be interested," Rogue replied.

"You're kidding right? How would I not be interested?" Jubilee demanded.

"I have to say," added Kitty, "I'm surprised. I thought that you and Remy -"

"Oh, Remy joins us too," Rogue said, not bothering to hide her smile.

"Uhh, he does?" asked Jubilee.

"Sure," Rogue said. "In fact he's always there before I am, which just goes to show how eager he is."

Storm lifted her head and looked at Rogue curiously. Logan pulled out one of his cigars and lit it.

"Okay, wow, I didn't really think you were into that kind of thing," Kitty said slowly.

"Well, neither did I at first," Rogue went on cheerfully, "I guess it was probably one of my psyche's influences to begin with, but I really liked it the first time and I was still interested a couple of weeks later, so I figured, why not?"

"I can't believe I'm hearing this," said Jubilee, sound dazed.

"It comes with its perks too," Rogue said coyly. "There's nothing quite like being sandwiched between two hot guys."

Logan blew out some smoke and smirked.

"I'm not sure I want to hear any more," Kitty said.

"Is it... is it really good?" asked Jubilee, leaning in.

"Overall, yes," Rogue replied. "At the moment, it's a bit so-so, but we know we can always go back to the good stuff. Besides, I haven't seen any of the movies yet. The boys have though."

A smile appeared on Storm's face.

"Movies?" Piotr asked.

"Yeah, there's about eleven of them," Rogue replied.

"Wait, you're watching TV?" Kitty asked.

"Sure," Rogue said innocently. "What else would I be doing with Forge and Remy?"

"Omigod!" Jubilee exclaimed. "I thought... that is... omigod!"

"What are you watching?" asked Kitty.

"It's _Star Trek_, isn't it?" said Storm.

"Yeah, but shh," Rogue said in a low voice with a cheeky grin on her face. "Remy doesn't like people knowing he's a geek. It ruins his 'bad boy' image."

* * *

"You seemed a little concerned earlier," Logan said later that day.

"About what?" asked Storm.

"Forge and Rogue."

Storm was silent.

"'Ro," Logan said patiently, "if you and Forge -"

"I think I have an understanding of how it must feel for Forge to see you and me together," Storm interrupted. "I feel I have only just gotten used to him being alive without trying to deal with him dating anyone else as well."

It was Logan's turn to be silent.

"A part of me will always love Forge, Logan," Storm went on quietly. "And I am certain a part of him will always love me too. But I accepted a long time ago that we no longer have a future together."

Storm reached over, took Logan's hand and looked him seriously in the eye.

"This is something I will need to deal with, if and when Forge starts dating again," she told him, "but it is not something you will need to be concerned about. I have no interest in leaving you for my ex."

Logan nodded slowly. "Good to know."

* * *

"How are the security upgrades coming?" Rogue asked.

She was lying across Forge's bed. Gambit was sitting beside her, playing with her legs while Forge put away the disc of _Enterprise_ they'd just finished watching.

"Just about done," Forge replied. "We should be finished in a couple of weeks."

"Neat," Rogue said. "How long has it taken you?"

"Since we got final approval from Stormy? Five months by the time we're done," Gambit replied.

"Wow, has it been that long?"

"Oui."

"You two have been busy."

"And you have to admit," Forge said. "Not only is it functional, it also looks great."

Rogue laughed.

"And you're not at all biased in that opinion either," she teased him.

"Me? No. Now, the next plan is to see if we can talk 'Ro into letting us produce comm badges," Forge said gleefully

"I don't think she'll go for it," Rogue said.

"Well, we wouldn't use the Star Fleet insignia or anything," Forge said. "They'd look like X's."

"Very sneaky," Rogue said. "She still won't go for it."

"I think you'll be surprised what we can con Stormy into doing," Gambit said.

"Maybe an X in a circle," Forge said thoughtfully. "Yeah, that'll look classy."

"As you can see, we're already thinking about upgrades for our upgrades," Gambit joked.

Rogue chuckled.

* * *

Rogue sat on Gambit's lap in the rec room, for lack of enough seats. With them was Bobby, Kitty, Jubilee, Piotr and Forge and a movie they had rented. While everyone else watched the movie, Gambit preferred to play with Rogue. His arms were wrapped around her waist and periodically slid down her legs or over her hip and he occasionally planted a few kisses on her back and arms.

The sad thing was that everyone had gotten used to Gambit being all over Rogue by now. No one even made "get a room" comments any more, primarily at Rogue's request. She was concerned he might take them seriously.

"If you don't like it," Kitty said to her once, "tell him to stop."

"Ha that's the problem," Jubilee said with a smirk before Rogue could respond. "She _does_ like it."

"Shut up," Rogue said. "Look, by being all over me, he's kinda doing me a favour in the whole power-control department."

Kitty and Jubilee looked at each other, and then back at Rogue.

"Fine, I like it," Rogue said.

"See?" Jubilee said smugly. "It wasn't all that hard to admit."

"I just..." Rogue began and then sighed. "I know I have him in my head, but I feel like I barely know the guy. It's really frustrating. And I try, I really do, but he's very... distracting. The last thing I need is someone suggesting we get a room."

"Well it would be one way to get to 'know' him," Jubilee joked.

"Yeah, but not in the way I want to get to know him," Rogue snapped.

"I know, I know. I was just kidding, sheesh."

Still, Rogue's inability to tell Gambit to keep his hands to himself only lead to times like this. He really was very good with his hands too.

His fingers gazed the skin under her shirt and Rogue felt the pull as once again her powers kicked in and she absorbed him. It took her a moment to push past all the lust-filled thoughts about her aside and turn her power off. Rogue sighed, stood up and left the room. All of a sudden she just wasn't in the mood.

* * *

"Yes Forge?" asked Storm as she stepped outside onto the balcony. "What is it you wanted to show me?"

"Check this out," Forge said gleefully.

He pressed a button on a little remote and as Storm looked out onto the yard, she saw a number of people appear that she hadn't seen before. With them was Gambit.

"What the –"

"Just watch," Forge said. "Remy."

Gambit gave them a salute, then pulled down a pair of earmuffs and lifted up a gun (which made Storm wonder since when they had guns on the premises). Storm raised her eyebrows as Gambit shot at some of the people with the automatic weapon and they fell to the ground, bullet ridden.

"Forge..." Storm said.

"It's okay," Forge assured her.

Gambit set the gun aside, then pulled out a handful of cards, charged them up and threw them at another group of people. Like the first, these people all hit the ground, clearly wounded by the blast. Gambit then proceeded to run at the last of the people, yelling nonsense at them. He laughed as they all ran off in different directions.

"Forge?" Storm pressed.

"They're holograms," Forge said gleefully. "We programmed them in the danger room, and I created some holo emitters –"

"Holo emitters?"

"Ahh, yes, well, I may or may not have been inspired by _Star Trek: Voyager_, in which there is a holographic doctor who was restricted to Sick Bay until they managed to get a holo emitter from the 29th century - the future - which allowed him to take his program not only around the ship, but off the ship," Forge said ruefully. "It was just what we needed for the decoy program."

"Decoy program?"

"The first upgrade to our security plans," Forge said proudly.

"It wasn't that long ago you finished them," Storm pointed out.

"It's never too early to upgrade," Forge insisted and went on to explain: "In case of invasion, we can activate the decoys; these guys. As you can see, they will react to stimuli; being shot, explosions, general shouting and screaming –"

"Yes, just where did that gun come from?"

"We programmed that in the danger room too," Forge said proudly. "Thanks to the holo emitter we can use it outside. It's only really noise and the holographic bullets are only going to hurt holograms. Obviously we have yet to test it with a real gun, but this one was programmed to simulate what a real one would do. The important thing is how they react to noise and impact."

"I see. And the point of the program is to make them think there are more people here than what there are?" Storm asked.

"Exactly," Forge said proudly. "Thereby giving our people a chance to escape. The only thing we haven't quite worked out yet is what to do in case of abduction. These things only have limited power, and once they're off - if they're offsite - the enemy then has some valuable tech in their hands. Not that it would do them any good as they can only be programmed using a special interface I have here. I really need to get that transporter working –"

"No," Storm said firmly. "No transporters."

"Oh, but I know what I did wrong –"

"No. Absolutely not."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

It took Rogue, Gambit and Forge about six months to get through all of _Enterprise_. As Rogue hadn't seen the movies yet, they spent the next eleven weeks watching those. Once that was done there was clearly only one other way to fill the timeslot: watch all the episodes all over again.

On this particular night, however, Rogue arrived at Forge's room with a box that had arrived in the mail for her that day.

"Okay," she said gleefully as she opened up the box. "You guys have to see what I got."

Forge applauded as Rogue pulled out a Star Fleet uniform. Gambit groaned.

"Oh no," said Gambit. "You've become one of _them_."

"Them?" Rogue asked with a slight smirk.

"Yes, one of those trekkies -"

"Trekkers," Forge corrected.

"- who has to dress up in costume," Gambit said.

"You know I've dressed up before," Rogue pointed out dryly.

"Yeah, but you were conducting an experiment and there are few places you can go around in full body paint without being stared at," Gambit said.

"Oh trust me," Rogue said wickedly, "I got stared at."

"Yeah, but no one thought you were weird," Gambit replied. "You've got the Star Fleet uniform now, though. There is no dual purpose for a Star Fleet uniform."

"Let's see," said Forge. "That would be a 2370's command division, standard duty uniform or I miss my guess."

Rogue raised an eyebrow and Gambit pointed at Forge.

"This is the guy you're turning into Rogue," Gambit said sagely.

"Oh, very funny," Rogue said. "And yes it is, Forge. I also got the comm badge and ensign pips."

"Ensign? You're at least a lieutenant junior grade," Forge replied with a grin.

"I'll promote myself next year," Rogue joked.

"Why command?" Gambit asked as he slipped off the bed to wrap his arms around Rogue's waist.

"I just like red," Rogue replied, twisting her head to grin at him.

Forge opened his mouth and then closed it again. Gambit laughed.

"You've just scandalised him, Rogue," said Gambit. "Imagine picking a division because you like the colour."

"Oh it's worse than that," Rogue replied with a wink. "I picked the whole thing 'cause I liked the look of it."

"Shocking," Gambit joked.

"I always get operations," Forge said. "Wanna see mine?"

"Sure," Rogue replied.

Forge opened up the left side of his wardrobe. Rogue and Gambit's eyebrows promptly met their hairlines as their eyes fell on the collection of _Star Trek_ costumes in there.

"Let's see," said Forge and started pulling out each respective uniform. "I've got the 2373 standard, and the 2370's, the 2360's, the 2260's and the 2270's, all with their respective insignias. Oh and this is my Borg costume, and my Romulan uniform and –"

"Is that a Klingon uniform?" asked Rogue, pointing.

"Yep," Forge said proudly. "I have to make a new head piece, but I have a bat'leth." [1]

"Oooh really?"

"Hang on, I'll just get it," Forge said.

He put the uniform back into the wardrobe and then pulled out a long box. Gambit gave Rogue a bemused look.

"Behold your future," he informed her.

"Don't be stupid," Rogue retorted. "I only got one."

"Oui. It starts with one."

"Hey," Forge objected as he lifted the box onto the table. "There's nothing wrong with my _Star Trek_ collection."

"Says the one with the collection," Gambit said. "Roguey, if you had to get a Star Fleet uniform, why couldn't you have gotten one from the _Original Series_?"

"You just want to see me in a miniskirt," Rogue accused him as she pulled free of his arms. "I don't need an _Original Series_ uniform for that."

"But you never wear miniskirts at all, chere," Gambit pointed out.

"I tell you what, Swamp Rat," Rogue said, wandering around to Forge's side. "I'll get an _Original Series_ uniform if you do too."

Gambit pulled a face and Forge laughed.

"You got him," Forge said, grinning away as he opened up the box.

"Nice," Rogue said approvingly as she looked at the crescent-shaped, double ended sword with its three handholds.

"Stainless steel, leather grip," Forge said, nodding his head. "48 inches of slice 'n dice. Logan's got nothing on this baby."

"I'm not sure that stainless steel is really in the same league as adamantium," Rogue said, bemused.

"Okay, fine then," Forge said. "Pete has nothing on this baby."

"Do you actually use it, or is it just for show?" asked Gambit.

"Better," Forge replied with a grin. "I have a couple of Klingon battle simulations in the danger room."

"Ha awesome," Rogue said.

"Wanna check it out?" Forge Asked. "We'll use holographic bat'leths though."

"Sure," Rogue said, grabbing her own box. "I'll put this back in my room, you guys get changed, and I'll meet you at the danger room."

* * *

Ten minutes later:

"Computer," said Forge, "run simulation 'Klingon Battle One'."

Rogue, Gambit and Forge found themselves in a large hall.

"Nice job on the Klingon architecture," Gambit said, looking around.

"Thanks," Forge replied and headed over to a wall. "Okay, pick your weapon."

All three of them picked up bat'leths.

"Weighty, isn't it?" Rogue said.

"It weighs about the same as my real one," Forge told her. "Ten pounds."

"Yeah," Gambit teased him. "Your real fictional weapon."

"He mocks because he's too proud to admit this is really cool," Rogue said.

"No, I mock because I like getting on everyone's nerves," Gambit replied as he swung the bat'leth around. "Nice swing. We got anyone to test these on?"

"Ready?" Forge asked Rogue.

"Sure," Rogue replied.

"Computer: Begin invasion, level 1," said Forge.

There was a bang and the front doors of the hall shuddered. A second bang, and then a third. On the fourth, the doors burst open and three holographic Klingons entered the hall, brandishing their own bat'leths. Rogue, Gambit and Forge met each of them. The ensuring fights took a few minutes, despite the low difficultly level, while the three got used to the unusual weapons.

Eventually the difficultly level increased as the three started to get the hang of it. They started taking on harder opponents and more of them at once. When at last they had their fill, Forge ended the invasion and asked the computer for a kill count.

"You keep a kill count?" asked Gambit.

"Sure," Forge replied. "It's easy to lose track of how many you take out… Wow! Rogue you did awesome!"

"Or alternatively, you two did lousy," Rogue teased. "How'd I get forty-six percent of them?"

"It's all those voices you have in your head, Roguey," Gambit said with a grin. "You've got Forge's prior experience with this program and the bat'leth, you've got combat experience from Logan, myself and goodness knows what other skills you've picked up from your other psyches. That on top of your own experience."

"So basically, you're saying I kick ass?" Rogue asked.

"Well, whatever the reason," said Forge, "this was fun. We should do this again sometime."

"Sure," Rogue agreed.

* * *

Gambit pressed Rogue up against the wall by her bedroom door. He kissed her vigorously. One held her hip while the other hand ran down her leg to hike it up around himself. Rogue lifted one of her hands from Gambit's chest where they had been virtually pinned and slipped it between their mouths.

"Remy," she said avoiding his gaze. "Remy, this has to stop."

Denied her lips, Gambit moved his kisses to her neck.

"What has to stop?" he asked between kisses.

"This! Remy," Rogue objected, pushing him away from her. "You, me, us. we can't go on like this."

"Au contraire," Gambit insisted, moving in again. "I could go on like this forever."

"That's what worries me," Rogue insisted, evading his hands. "I've let this continue for far too long. This has to end."

"What do you mean, this has to end?" Gambit demanded, looking perplexed. "Rogue, I love you."

"You don't know how much I wish that was true," Rogue said, shaking her head.

"It is true."

"And I believe that you really believe that but... But that's not what's going on."

"Yeah? Then what _is_ going on?" Gambit demanded, his voice thick with hurt.

"You're obsessed with me."

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it? Is it really?" Rogue asked. "For twelve years you were stuck in an alternate dimension. You were desperate to get out –"

"No kidding!"

"- and when I did come along you started counting on me and mutation to get you out! Because you were out of ideas and plans and even the most unlikely were worth trying. So you followed me around –"

"I already explained that!"

"- and got involved in my life. You were obsessed about getting out of there, Remy. Is it so hard to believe that in the two years you followed me around, that as the instrument of your freedom, you may have become obsessed with me as well?"

"That has nothing to do with how I feel about you –"

"It has _everything_ to do with it. You followed me around then, and you're still following me around now."

"Well excusez-moi for wanting to spend time with the woman I love!"

"Stop saying that word!" Rogue practically screamed at him. "I have you in my head! I'm all you think about. You plan your days around maximising the time you spend with me. I can't talk to anyone without you hanging around and being all over me. Just back off already!"

"So... what? You feel like I'm smothering you?" Gambit asked. "You know, you could just _say_ that instead of accusing me of being obsessed."

"No, it's not just that," Rogue sighed. "Remy, since you've been out, what exactly have you done with yourself? No, don't tell me, just think. You got your things sorted, but you've been living here at the mansion the whole time, and doing what? Helping Logan and Storm with training, helping Forge with the security upgrades, following me, and catching up on _Star Trek_. You've been practicing your thieving skills, but for someone who seems to enjoy stealing so much, you haven't exactly done very much of it."

"I like it here," Gambit replied. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing's wrong with that. I just... You need to go."

"Come again?"

"You need to leave, Gambit," Rogue said firmly. "You need to get out of this place and steal crap and hit casinos and see other women –"

"Chere –"

"You love that stuff, but you haven't done anything like it in what? Thirteen years now?"

"I found someone I love more."

"No, you got used to hanging around the mansion," Rogue snapped. "You never chose to settle down, Remy, it was forced on you. You need to return to your old life and actually live it for awhile. You were let out of prison but you're not yet free of it. And until you are, until you've settled your past and figured out what it is you actually want to do with your life, you and I can never be. I will only ever be the warden who let you out the prison doors."

"Don't say that!"

"I'm sorry, Remy," Rogue said, her hand curling around the handle to her bedroom door. "I really am. There have been times – a lot of them, actually – where I thought you and I might actually work but... But I'm just fooling myself –"

"No," Gambit insisted. "No, you're not."

"Either one day you'll wake up and realise you were never in love with me, or this obsession of yours will takeover both our lives and make them a living hell. Go or stay, it's up to you, but I can't date you any more, Remy LeBeau," Rogue said firmly. "I'd love to get to know you better, but for both our sakes I need to get out of your life for awhile. Until then, I don't think we could even be so much as friends."

Rogue opened the door and stepped backwards into her room, shutting and locking the door as soon as she was clear. Gambit banged on it once with both fists.

"Rogue, no!" he objected. "Please don't do this. Don't do this!"

In his anguish and determination to get in, the door began to glow magenta. It took him a moment before he realised what he was doing and quickly reabsorbed the charge into himself. He backed away, staring at the door he'd been about to blow to pieces in horror.

Rogue wasn't right, was she?

* * *

Storm found Gambit on the roof early the following morning.

"You haven't been up here all night have you?" she asked as the winds about her deposited her gently on the roof.

"Oui," Gambit replied dismally, not even bothering to look at her.

"Hmm," Storm hummed as she sat down beside him.

There was silence for a time.

"Rogue thinks I'm mistaking obsession for love," Gambit said finally.

"And what do you think?" Storm asked.

"I think I'm in love," Gambit replied helplessly. "I can't get her out of my mind. Just being in the same room with her makes me happy. I can't stand the thought of living without her. Isn't that what you feel when you're in love?"

"Some could argue there is a fine line between love and obsession," Storm replied.

"Is that what you think? That I'm obsessed too?"

"I have not seen you look at another woman the way you look at Rogue. Not even Bella Donna," Storm said. "It's obvious you adore her, Remy, but I cannot tell you what you feel."

Another silence followed.

"She wants me to leave," Gambit said finally. "To go back and steal things for awhile."

"While I don't particularly condone that lifestyle any more," Storm said tolerantly, "you did always enjoy a good heist."

"Heh, yeah."

"Not that I want you to leave," Storm went on, "but for you it might not be such a bad idea. This was Forge's home, and he is happy here. That is not the same for you. This is not _your_ home."

"My home's still in New Orleans and I can never go back there," Gambit said.

"I know, and as much as I would love for you to consider my home yours as well, that's something you're going to have to decide on for yourself."

Gambit nodded slowly and another silence followed.

"You want to see me to the gate this time?" he asked dryly.

"I think I should," Storm replied with a slight smile. "You're going to go then?"

"No point in staying here," he replied ruefully. "Rogue doesn't even want to be friends. Any attempt I make to try and fix things will only fuel her 'obsession' theory. She's wrong about that. I'm sure she is but... well, she can be very stubborn."

"You've noticed that?" Storm teased.

"Hard to miss," Gambit said standing up.

"You can be stubborn too," Storm pointed out as she stood as well.

"Yes, but when I'm stubborn it's cute," Gambit replied with a hint of mischief in his eyes.

"Just do not forget to write, Remy."

Gambit chuckled.

"No, I mean it," Storm said firmly. "I want letters, postcards, emails, phone calls... If I don't hear from you at least once a week I'm going to hunt you down and clobber you."

"So, how does Logan feel about you chasing after other men?"

* * *

**AN:**

[1] A bat'leth is a Klingon sword. If you want to see what it looks like, I'd suggest you do a google image search.

And on a side note, There are three divisions in Star Fleet: Command, Operations and Science. Science division uniforms are blue. Command was originally yellow/gold and then was changed to red in later series. Operations was originally red and then was changed to yellow/gold in later series.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

_Hi Stormy,_

_Ha! I bet you didn't expect to hear from me so soon, did you? Heh heh heh._

_Caught up with some old friends of mine. They'd gotten the idea that I'd gone into retirement. I told them retirement was boring. They think I'm crazy, but that's their problem. They should have known I was crazy years ago. Anyway, picked up a decent "coming out of retirement" commission, so I'm off to do that._

_Give Logan a big smack on the lips for me._

_- Remy_

* * *

"What do you mean, Logan didn't appreciate getting a smack on the lips?" Gambit asked Storm over the phone.

"He liked the kiss just fine," Storm replied musingly. "It was the idea that it was from you that he wasn't so happy about."

"Kiss? What kiss? I said smack."

"Oh, sorry. My mistake."

* * *

_Hi Roguey,_

_I have no idea if you'll read this or not, but if I don't write it then it won't get read at all, will it? The way I see it, you said that you wanted to get to know me better, but you also had to get out of my life. I figured if I write to you, you'll know what's going on with me, but if you don't write back, you won't really be in my life._

_You were right, by the way. Not about me being obsessed with you, but about me needing to get away from the mansion for awhile. It's only been a month but I feel more alive than I have in years. 13 of them to be exact._

_Love Remy_

* * *

On the back of a postcard:

_Hi Stormy,_

_Just letting you know, I've still got it._

_- Remy_

* * *

_Hi Roguey,_

_I'd love to tell you how my latest job went down but there are just some things which shouldn't be committed to paper, no? Let's just say that technology has not improved enough in the last 13 years to hinder me._

* * *

_"You have reached Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. We can't take your call right now, so please leave your name, number and a brief message after the tone."_

"Bonjour Stormy. I guess this is what happens when I make an overseas call and don't bother to check the time zones, hein? Just calling to see how you are and let you know I'm doing fine."

* * *

On the back of a postcard from Madripoor:

_Forge,_

_You're an idiot._

_- Remy_

_

* * *

_

_"You have reached Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. We can't take your call right now, so please leave your name, number and a brief message after the tone."_

"Bonjour Logan. I just wanted to tell you I'm in your bar, drinking your beer."

_

* * *

_

_Dear Roguey,_

_Just got back from Madripoor. My advice? Never go there for a holiday. Unless you've got Logan with you. And even then you're probably better off hitting the Caribbean or something._

_

* * *

_

On the back of a postcard:

_Hi Stormy,_

_I'm trying to remember why I liked travelling. I haven't been this jet-lagged in years._

_- Remy_

_

* * *

_

It was the middle of the day when Storm attempted to answer the phone, but for some reason it wouldn't let her pick it up. The answering machine did instead.

"You have reached Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. We can't take your call right now, so please leave your name, number and a brief message after the tone."

_"Bonjour mes amis,"_ came Gambit's mischievous voice. _"I have to tell you about this bizarre dream I had the other night."_

Those in the rec room silenced at they looked at the computer interface. Were they supposed to be hearing this message?

_"I dreamt that the Wolverine and Storm were holding hands and skipping through a field of pretty flowers."_

Logan, in the control room of the danger room, glared at the computer interface installed in there and growled.

_"Butterflies of all different colours were flying around them. A romantic theme played in the background."_

Forge, in his lab, was staring at the computer interface.

"How _is _he doing that?" he wondered. "It's not supposed to broadcast everywhere."

_"Wolverine and Storm grasped hands. They whirled each other around in a circle until sheer momentum broke them apart and they fell to the ground with big silly smiles on their faces and they laughed."_

In the garage, Rogue giggled at the imagery.

_"Oh wait, that wasn't a dream. That was just a silly story I made up. Hey Forge, I think you need to fix the bug in the comm system, no?"_

_

* * *

_

"Hey Forge," said Rogue looking up from the computer.

"Huh? Oh, umm, yeah?" Forge asked distractedly.

"You think Remy would like this shirt?" Rogue asked, turning the screen about so he could see.

The shirt on the screen had a picture of Spock with the words "I have a bad case of the pon farr and you're the cure" printed on it. Forge took a moment to register what it said and then burst out laughing. [1]

_

* * *

_

Gambit sat in the back room with three others. As they talked, Gambit casually sprung cards from one hand to the other.

"... and Gambit's on explosives," said a weedy little man who had taken on leadership of the group.

"Yeah?" said a heavyset man, covered in tattoos. "Whatcha got?"

Gambit pressed his cards back together, lifted the top one and charged it. A flick of his fingers and the card went flying and exploded above the centre of the table.

"How are trick cards going to be -" Tattoos began.

"Stupid," said the fourth, and loveliest, member of the group; a black-haired beauty with dark eyes. "He's obviously a mutant."

"I make things go boom," Gambit drawled.

"Yeah? Can you make a foot of steel-reinforced concrete go 'boom'," Tattoos demanded.

"But of course. Just try to keep out of the blast zone, mon ami. We wouldn't want you to get hurt, no?"

"Gambit can do it," said Weedy. "I wouldn't have brought him in if he couldn't. Now, this is the plan."

The next couple of hours was spent plotting to free people of the tiresome burden of having material possessions.

"Okay," said Weedy at last. "That's it. We meet at seven."

Everyone started to pack up and head out. Beauty intercepted Gambit.

"So hun," she said, looping her arm with his. "How say you and I go and do something to relax before the big night?"

"Hmm," Gambit considered. "I was planning on sleeping, what about you?"

"Must have read my mind," she replied, sliding her hand up his chest. "I was just thinking the same thing."

"Desole, ma chere," Gambit said, catching her hand. "I actually meant _sleeping_. I'm afraid that you and I will have to keep our relationship strictly professional."

"Don't like to, ahh, 'date' the people you work with, huh?" she asked, with a smile smirk. "Yeah, that's probably wise."

"Oui," Gambit agreed.

"Still... after this job is over," she went on as they exited the building, "we won't be working together any more."

"True, true," Gambit replied. "Mais, I think my girlfriend might have a few things to say about it though."

"Right," she said, pulled her hand away and then muttered under her breath: "Should have known you were taken already."

Gambit chuckled softly as they parted ways, at the same time feeling a little sick. He didn't feel at all bad about lying to her, or to any of the other women who had crossed his path about having a girlfriend. That was the problem though; he was lying when he wanted so much for it still to be true. No matter what Rogue said about him seeing other women, he simply couldn't do it.

* * *

"Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters," said Kitty as she answered the phone.

"Bonjour Chaton," said Gambit. "That is Chaton, right?"

"Yeah," Kitty replied, sounding amused. "Remy?"

"Oui. Stormy there?"

"She's gone out."

"Oh. Roguey?"

"Danger room with Logan," Kitty replied.

"Oh well, probably for the best," Gambit said with a sigh. "Shouldn't be talking to her anyway."

"Rogue misses you," Kitty offered. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"Then she wouldn't be out of my life, would she?"

"I don't really think she's out of your life now," Kitty said seriously. "Look, I don't entirely understand what's going on between you two, but I do know that Rogue misses you and I think that she even regrets telling you -"

"Tell Stormy I called," Gambit interrupted.

And before Kitty could reply, Gambit hung up.

* * *

"Adam!" called Matt, one of the other mechanics at the garage. "Your ex just pulled up."

Rogue hid her grin as her boss let out a slew of swear words, declared that he wasn't here and promptly barricaded himself in his office.

"So," said Josh, another mechanic. "Who's turn is it to tell her to leave this time?"

"I think it's..." Matt began, stopped and then looked at Rogue. "Actually I don't believe Marie's ever done it before."

"Actually, that's true," said Josh, looking at Rogue slyly. "You can have the bitch this time."

Rogue shrugged as the bell at the counter started ringing incessantly.

"Okay," she replied with a smirk and she made her way over to the counter.

Adam's ex-wife, Debbie, was a middle-aged blonde with sharp, piercing eyes and a sour expression. Her hand continued to bang on the bell until she noticed Rogue come into view. As Rogue understood it, Debbie had left Adam for another - richer - man, they'd divorced, she remarried and then divorced again when it didn't work out. Ever since her second divorce, Debbie had felt the need to hound Adam every now and then, much to his dismay, leading him to instruct his employees to get rid of her on those occasions when she showed up at work.

"Can I help you?" asked Rogue politely.

"I'm here to see Adam," Debbie said haughtily.

"Are you having a problem with your car?" Rogue asked innocently. "Because Adam's not here at the moment, but I'm sure I can help you."

"Hardly. I'm his wife."

"Impossible," Rogue dismissed. "Adam's not married."

"I assure you, he is," Debbie said firmly.

"Well," Rogue replied. "He'd better not be or he's got a _lot_ of explaining to do."

There was silence while Debbie appraised the young woman before her. She took in hands spotted with engine grease, hair tied back in a bun and tight black pants, a long-sleeved shirt with the first couple of buttons undone and the name 'Marie' printed on the left. Debbie pressed her lips together, being forced to admit that Rogue was half her age and rather attractive.

"Oh I know. You must be the _ex_-wife, Debbie?" Rogue said coyly and deliberately dragged her eyes over Debbie. "Not much to look at are you? I'd say he must have married you for your personality, but you cheated on him right? For money? So that clearly wasn't it. No looks, no personality, no money... I wonder what he ever saw in you?"

"You listen here, bitch -" Debbie began, incensed.

Rogue brought Gambit's psyche to the fore of her mind. She missed Gambit a lot and now that he was gone, she realised that she knew a lot more about him than she thought she did. She still thought he was obsessed with her, but she often wondered if maybe she could have handled things differently.

In any case, it happened one morning some months ago while Rogue was brushing her hair in front of the mirror that her thoughts had been on Gambit, and this had the side-effect of bringing his psyche to the fore of her mind. As Rogue had watched her reflection, she saw her eyes change from green-on-white to red-on-black. It had given her quite a start, but the accident came with the additional knowledge that Gambit could see in the dark and Rogue could therefore tell when she had her own eyes and when she had Gambit's.

Rogue exercised this knowledge now and changed her eye colour. When the service office brightened, she knew it was working and she gave a low growl at Debbie, who was now stunned into silence. Then, just like that, Rogue let Gambit's psyche go and the lighting in the service office dimmed once more.

"I'm sorry," Rogue said innocently. "You were saying?"

"N-nothing," Debbie stammered. "I was just going."

Rogue smirked as Debbie bolted. She sauntered back into the garage.

"Gone already?" said Matt. "That was quick."

Rogue shrugged. "My friends don't call me 'Rogue' for nothing, sugar."

* * *

Gambit inspected the new wallet he, ahem, just picked up. It was of good quality and certainly in much better shape than his current wallet was in. His decision made, Gambit emptied out the contents of his old wallet - which was falling apart at the seams - and transferred the contents to the new one. A few cards, his drivers licenses, his cash, a photo of Rogue, a photo of Storm, and a rather worn photo of his father, brother and sister-in-law.

He traced his thumb over the pictures of Jean-Luc, Henri and Mercy as he transferred the picture across. He missed them. He missed them a lot. Sometimes he'd toyed with the idea of breaking exile and going back to New Orleans. To gamble his life for the chance to see his family again.

* * *

On the back of a postcard:

_Roguey,_

_I love you._

_Remy_

* * *

"She cried?" Gambit repeated in surprise down the phone.

"Whatever she thinks of your feelings for her," Storm replied patiently, "I think it's evident that Rogue cares for you very much."

"Well, that's nice to know," Gambit replied.

"I don't suppose you're planning on coming back any time soon?" Storm asked.

"No," Gambit said, his eyes flickering to a certain canister on the table. "I've got some other things I need to do before I can even think about that."

* * *

"Umm, Marie," said Adam as he noted the arrival of his youngest employee. "Can I have a word?"

Rogue shrugged. "Sure."

"I had a very strange discussion with my daughter over the weekend," Adam said. "Seems she's been in contact with Debbie, and Debbie seem to think that I was involved with one of my employees?"

"Really?" asked Rogue with a slight grin on her face. "Which one?"

"The one with the demon eyes."

"Has your ex-wife always been paranoid delusional?"

"Marie..."

"Okay, okay. I may or may not have given her the impression that we were involved the last time she came around," Rogue said with a smirk. "Not my fault if she was so easily intimidated by the younger, sexier woman."

Adam laughed.

_

* * *

_

"Hey Remy," said the man behind the counter of the pawn shop.

"Hey Ryan," Gambit replied. "Look, I need you to do me a favour."

"Oh yeah?" Ryan asked skeptically. "What makes you think -"

"All I need you to do is keep this," Gambit said, sliding over an envelope, "for six months. If I don't come back to collect it, post it."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"What's going on Remy?"

"And this," said Gambit, handing over another smaller envelope, "is for your trouble."

* * *

"You have reached Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. We can't take your call right now, so please leave your name, number and a brief message after the tone."

_"This is Gambit with a message for Stormy and Roguey. You're probably not going to hear from me for a couple of weeks. I've decided I'm going to New Orleans. I'll call you when I've left."_

Rogue and Storm looked at each other as the beep sounded, signalling the end of the message.

"If the Assassins catch him, they'll kill him for breaking exile," Rogue said, staring at the machine in horror.

"Yes they will," Storm said solemnly.

"We have to stop him! We have to -"

"We can't do a thing," Storm said firmly. "Remy will have a better chance of getting in and out unnoticed if we don't interfere."

"But -"

"I know it's hard, Rogue, but he has to do this on his own."

"I never should have made him leave," Rogue said, shaking her head. "I never should have -"

"No," Storm cut in. "You did the right thing, Rogue. This time away has been good for him. I can't say that he's been happier, exactly, but I think he's been more... self aware. If and when he comes back, it'll be because he wants to be here and feels he belongs here."

"Yeah," Rogue said unhappily. "He just has to survive New Orleans first."

* * *

**AN:**

[1] This shirt really does exist:

www[dot]popfunk[dot]com/style-Tee_Shirt-STAR_TREK-PON_FAR_CBS260[dot]aspx?367

As mentioned in a previous chapter in not so many words, the pon farr is when Vulcans (the species of which Spock is a member) go into heat. "Have sex or die". Okay, actually it's "have sex, fight over mate or die" but the first one is much more fun to say.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

It had been eighteen years since Gambit last stepped foot in his hometown and although much had changed, most was still the same as it ever was.

Normally Gambit wasn't inclined to hide his eyes, but for New Orleans, he made an exception. It wouldn't do for rumours of a man with red-on-black eyes walking the streets to start flying around, even during Mardi Gras. His wrap-around dark sunglasses would be his best friend for the duration of his stay.

Mardi Gras was definitely the best time of year for him to visit New Orleans. The streets would be thick with Thieves and any Assassins would be far more interested in the local celebrations than in the people in the crowd. Even if the Guild war had heated up in the past years, Mardi Gras was the unspoken 'peace time' between the Guilds. This was on account of the local police and their annoying tendency to arrest anyone causing even the tiniest amount of trouble. Generally members of both Guilds were very good at evading the police, but this was much harder to do in the thick crowds and they liked having any excuse to arrest a Guild member, even if in the end they could rarely pin anything on them. Getting picked up for anything "little" would be embarrassing. Nevertheless "peace time" would not extend to him if the Assassins spotted him.

The only downside, of course, was getting a place to stay. Gambit had been unwilling to call a friend or make a reservation for a hotel room in advance, even if he had thought of making this trip earlier on. Still, he managed to get a place in Metairie, small and shabby though it may have been.

The next step was to get his brother's attention. For a time, Gambit contemplated sticking a wallet in his back pocket with a message in it and wait until someone picked his pocket, but decided only to do that as a last resort. Call him paranoid, but even if he'd left something in code, anything written down could be read by anyone and there would be no guarantee that his pocket would be picked by an appropriate Thief.

Thus it was on his first night there, Gambit made his way to a bar he knew Henri frequented. He could all but guarantee that Henri would be there during Mardi Gras, being a favourite of tourists. The Thieves Guild of New Orleans _loved_ Carnival season. He almost didn't recognise his brother at first; Henri had become rather bald.

And sure enough, there he was. Gambit spotted his brother almost the second he walked through the bar doors. Henri was at the pool tables, no doubt hustling tourists. Gambit smirked and made his way to the counter to order a drink. Best way to get the attention of a Thief: flash some cash.

As Henri finished up with his latest mark, Gambit made his way over to the pool tables. Evidentially, Henri or one of his colleagues had noticed Gambit, for when Gambit asked about a game - in a deliberate northern accent - Henri had accepted.

"Best player I ever went up against was my brother," Gambit said casually. "Taught me everything I know."

"That so?" Henri replied as he lined up his shot, obviously not interested in the conversation.

"Yep," Gambit said. "Poker's more my game though."

"Uh huh," Henri said as he sunk two balls at once.

"Always clean up at the poker tables," Gambit went on. "Even won a plane when I was seventeen."

Henri paused in the middle of lining up his next shot to glance at Gambit. With all the drinking that went on it wasn't unusual to play with someone who might be a bit chatty, yet suddenly this didn't seem like random babble.

"A plane?" Henri said slowly.

"Jacks over fives," Gambit said and then went on quickly: "My brother told me she was a heap of junk and I was crazy for even flying her, but I got four years out of her before she died beyond repair on me."

"Four years," Henri repeated, was silent while he took his shot and sunk another ball. "What did your brother say?"

"Not a thing," Gambit replied ruefully. "Haven't seen him in years."

"That's too bad."

"Yes it is."

Henri hit the ball on his next shot but didn't sink any. He stood up straight and stepped away while Gambit lined up his shot.

"You and the family here for Mardi Gras?" Henri asked.

"Afraid it's just me," Gambit replied as he lined up his shot. "You're a local?"

"All my life," Henri replied, watching as Gambit sunk his first ball. "Born here. Married here. Raising my son here."

Gambit fought hard to keep the smile from his face. "You have a kid?"

"Jacques Remy," Henri replied. "He's thirteen."

Gambit found it difficult to concentrate on his next shot. He had a nephew, born after he'd gotten stuck in a certain alternate dimension, and named after him. Gambit had to stop and steady his hands before he could strike the cue ball again with any hope of hitting it.

"I envy you," Gambit replied after he failed to sink another ball. "Unfortunately, my last serious girlfriend broke up with me eight months ago."

"That's too bad," Henri said as he approached the table again.

"You're telling me."

The game progressed. Henri won by a landslide, but Gambit didn't care. He wasn't playing to win money.

* * *

The following day, Gambit made his way to a certain store in the French Quarter which Henri had recommended as a good place to pick up Mardi Gras costumes. In the course of looking through the many available masks on for sale and trying to comb through the crowd of people, Gambit was approached by one of the sales assistants.

"Bonjour m'sieu," she said. "May I help you?"

"I was recommended the Travis Grant brand costumes by a friend," Gambit replied. "I don't suppose you happen to have any in stock?"

"Of course," she replied after only the briefest flickers of recognition across her face. "We keep such high quality merchandise in the back. If you will follow me?"

Gambit agreed with a nod and followed the young lady out to the back room.

"Go down the hall," she instructed him tersely and then went back out into the door.

Gambit walked down past racks of costumes and boxes as the door clicked shut behind him. He rounded the corner. At the other end was the back door, but more to the point, there were two people leaning against the wall, both dressed up as pirates.

"Remy LeBeau you stupid, little fool!" Mercy exclaimed even as she lifted her hands towards him for a hug. "You should not be here."

"I've missed you too," Gambit replied hugging her fiercely.

"Ooh it's so good to see you," Mercy said, pulling back and looking him over. "You've hardly changed at all."

"And you look just as stunning as ever," Gambit replied. "I love the costume."

Mercy chuckled.

"Thank you," she replied. "This is mon fils, Jacques Remy LeBeau. Jacques, this is your Oncle Remy."

"Pleasure to meet you," Gambit said,

"Whatever," Jacques replied.

"Jacques," Mercy scolded then turned back to Gambit who was looking amused. "Don't mind him. He's just sore because I made him dress up."

Gambit looked at Mercy suspiciously.

"You're going to make me dress up too, aren't you?" he asked.

"Of course," Mercy replied with a smirk. "We have to get you through the crowd somehow and since they'll definitely recognise us, we have to make sure they won't definitely recognise you. Really, Remy. This is positively the best and worse time you could have come."

"Because of Mardi Gras?"

"Non," Mercy replied, her voice going quiet as she pulled out Gambit's pirate costume from the rack. "It's Jean-Luc. He had a stroke a couple of months ago and... Well, to be frank he hasn't much time left. The Assassins have almost been expecting us to make contact with you."

Gambit nodded slowly as he accepted the costume.

"Change in there," Mercy instructed pointing to a door opposite them.

Gambit gave her a mock salute and headed inside.

"We did tell everyone to keep an eye out for you," Mercy admitted as Gambit changed. "Some messages need to be passed along, exile or no. I didn't think anyone had found you though."

"I never got any message," Gambit confirmed.

"Evidentially or you would have also gotten the message not to come and visit," Mercy scolded him. "Really, Remy, of all the fool things for you to do... Do you _want_ to get killed? They're on the look out for any and all tall men hiding their eyes."

"Bet they've got their work cut out for them," Gambit replied.

"Not as hard as you might think, Remy," Mercy said. "After all, they only need to find some one wearing sunglasses at an inappropriate hour, such as in a bar at ten in the evening."

"Point taken," Gambit conceded and stepped back out of the janitors closet, now fully dressed as a pirate. "But I don't see how showing everyone my eyes will make me any safer from scrutiny, Mercy."

Mercy handed over a small, circular case and an eyepatch. Gambit took the case suspiciously.

"A full eye contact lens?" Gambit said. "I hate those things."

"It's your own fault for having black sclera and not white sclera like normal people," Mercy said firmly.

"I can't see through them."

"Better blind than dead. Besides you're only wearing one. The eyepatch is see-through. You can look through it, but no one can see your eye."

Gambit grumbled and reluctantly put the contact lens in.

"I can't believe you still have these things after all these years," he muttered.

"You kidding?" asked Mercy. "We have a supplier in Mississippi who makes a set for us every year. We wanted to be prepared in case a certain stupid fool decided to break exile."

"If I'm a fool for wanting to see my family again, then I guess I'm a fool," Gambit replied with a slight smile.

Mercy inclined her head and handed over a bag for Gambit to put his things in. A few minutes later, the three departed the shop. They promptly got caught up the crowd, ended watching a parade and somehow, finally made it out of the French Quarter. A bit more crowd navigating (with some pick-pocketing along the way) and they'd finally reached their car. It took longer to get through the traffic but they finally succeeded in making their way home to the Guild Headquarters.

It was with great relief that Gambit took off the contact lens and eye patch. Jacques all but immediately disappeared (and changed) the moment he got home.

"Henri will be home later," said Mercy. "I'll take you to Jean-Luc."

"Okay," Gambit replied.

He followed Mercy up the stairs and down the hall towards the LeBeau wing. Gambit dragged a little; it had been so long since he last stepped foot here and yet so much was still as he remembered it. Finally Mercy stopped outside of Jean-Luc's bedroom. She began to open the door and then stopped.

"Remy," she said, her voice unusually quiet and solemn. "Jean-Luc is... His whole left side is paralysed. He can't speak, he can't... The man in here is not going to be the man you remember, Remy."

Gambit nodded slowly, aware of the forlorn look on Mercy's face. There was a moment of silence between them and then Mercy opened the door.

* * *

Jacques looked up quickly from the TV and his video game as he felt a hand on his shoulder and went right on back to the TV again.

"Bonjour Pere," he said.

"Jacques," Henri replied. "Where's your Mere and Oncle Remy?"

"They're with Grandpere," Jacques reported.

"Bon," Henri said, sounding relieved. "Shouldn't you be training or something?"

"Pere, I've been picking pockets all day," Jacques complained, "and wearing a stupid pirate costume."

"I hope your Mere got photos."

"Pere!"

* * *

"Remy!" Henri greeted, practically bowling Gambit over with a hug. "You damned fool! It's great to see you."

Gambit laughed and hugged Henri back tightly.

"It's good to see you too, Henri," Gambit said. "Although I am starting to resent everyone calling me a fool."

Henri chuckled and clapped Gambit on the back as he pulled away.

"Well, you are," Henri said. "You're in that much trouble right now, it's not funny. The Assassins know you're here."

"Merde," Gambit said.

"What? Already?" asked Mercy."How?"

"Not sure yet," Henri replied. "They might have seen him in the crowd, they may have seen him in the bar last night or wherever else you may have been, or maybe we're lucky and they're just guessing. Either way they're going to be watching the Hall very closely. It might not be so easy to get you out."

"Let's worry about that later," Gambit said. "Right now, I'm more interested in doing what I came here to do: see my family again. Where's everyone else? Emil? Theo? Tante Mattie?"

"They'll all be at dinner tonight," Henri assured him. "Tante's been putting together a real feast for us."

"She's probably going to call me a fool too," Gambit said with a grin.

* * *

"Imbecile!" Tante Mattie said after walloping Gambit with her rolling pin. "Of all the times you had to pick for a visit you just had to come now when the 'Sassins are gunning for you. You should have come last year."

"Je suis desole, Tante," Gambit replied, rubbing his shoulder.

"Jean-Luc never would have wanted you to see him like that either," she added. "Now come here and give me a hug."

Gambit chuckled and hugged Tante Mattie as he was bid.

"There now, let me look at you," Tante Mattie said. "You look good Remy. Did you finally give up smoking?"

"Oui, actually I did," Gambit replied with a grin. "Fourteen years."

"Good. Those things will kill you."

"Now I just have the Assassins to worry about."

"Hmm," Tante Matte considered with a slight smile. "Somehow I have a feeling things will work out just fine."

"I wish I had your confidence, Tante," said Henri. "The last thing I want to do is lose mon pere _and_ mon frere. We only just got him back."

* * *

"So, Remy," said Theoren at the dinner table that night. "Just what have you been doing these last few years?"

"That depends," Gambit replied with a sly smile. "Do you want the official story or the truth?"

"Let's start with the official story," Emil said with a grin. "Then you can bore us with the truth."

"Actually you might find the official story to be the boring one," Gambit teased him. "Let's see, after I left here at eighteen I stole, gambled, played the field -"

"Typical," Mercy said.

"And then I decided to retire on my riches at twenty-three," Gambit went on with a smirk. "I got myself a nice little place with a beach front, all the lovely ladies I could want and a casino down the road. I got bored with retirement about eight months ago and decide to go back to stealing, which I've been doing ever since."

Everyone stared at him.

"You retired?" Henri asked skeptically.

"I told you that was the official story," Gambit replied slyly.

"So... what really happened?" asked Emil.

"Instead of retiring at twenty-three I decided to visit Stormy -" Gambit began.

"Stormy! I haven't seen 'Ro is years," said Henri. "How's she doing?"

"She's the headmaster of a school for mutants," Gambit replied. "The same one she went to to learn how to control her powers. Which is where I went to see her. She was dating this guy, Forge, who's an inventor. Said inventor thought it would be a brilliant idea to make a transporter."

"A transporter?" asked Henri. "Like on that _Star Trek_ show you used to watch?"

"Still watch," Gambit replied. "And oui."

"Cool," said Emil. "Did it actually work? Because it would add a whole new dimension to this stealing business."

"A whole new dimension is right," Gambit said dryly. "Forge hadn't exactly worked out all the kinks in it. He accidentally activated it and got us both caught in the beam. We were stuck in an alternate dimension for over twelve years."

"An alternate dimension?" Mercy repeated skeptically.

"It was superimposed over the school," Gambit explained. "We could see and hear what everyone was doing, but we couldn't touch or taste or smell anything, and they couldn't interact with us at all. I figured out that if I super-charged the fabric of this alternate dimension I could give people on the other side a static shock. Wasn't much, but in the end that's what got us out. There was this one fille, Rogue; whenever you touch her skin she absorbs your life force. Thoughts, memories, skills, powers. I started zapping her every day and it took two years before she had enough of me in her to get the message, but she was about to reset Forge's transporter to let us out."

"You were stuck in an alternate dimension," Henri said disbelievingly.

"Oui. It came with some perks. I was physically stuck at twenty-three for the duration that was nice. Couldn't smoke, which sucked but then I would have run out of cigarettes sooner or later so that was inevitable, probably. The ladies never saw us when we...dropped in on them."

"Pervert," Mercy said disgustedly.

Gambit chuckled wickedly.

"If that's the truth," said Theoren, "I can see why you have an 'official story'."

"Oui, who'd believe that?" Gambit asked with a grin.

"Me!" Emil declared. "Oui, it's true: I find Remy getting stuck in an alternate dimension where he gets to perv on femmes to be far more believable than Remy _retiring_."

"There is some merit to that argument," Theoren agreed.

"So, what about this girlfriend you mentioned?" Henri asked Gambit.

"Ahh that was Rogue," Gambit replied and Mercy smiled at the wistful look at appeared on his face. "Yeah she kinda kicked me out eight months ago. We'd been dating for a year. But enough about me, what about you guys? I have a nephew, mon pere is... not at his best any more. What else have I missed?"

* * *

Gambit stayed with his family for three days, but there reached a point where they could no longer delay the inevitable. His departure was planned down to the last detail, including sending a Thief to retrieve Gambit's things and his motorcycle from the hotel and take them to another meeting place in case Gambit had been spotted there.

Smuggling Gambit's things out of New Orleans was far easier than smuggling out the man himself.

Bella Donna approached the Thieves Guild car stuck amongst the slow-moving traffic. With her were three of her fellow Assassins, and each of them approached each of the car doors. Bella Donna tapped on the driver's door. Emil wound down the window.

"Bonjour Bella," he said cheerfully. "Lovely day for a stroll, isn't it?"

"Save it Lapin," Bella Donna snapped sharply as she lowered her head to his eye level and looked past him. "Well, well, well. Just as I thought. Remy LeBeau."

The man in the middle of the back seat with his dark wraparound sunglasses said nothing.

"Did you honestly think we didn't know that you would come? That we wouldn't catch you?" Bella Donna demanded. "Get out. Now! And as for you, Lapin. You tell Henri -"

"Aww come on Bella," Emil said. "Jean-Luc's dying. What's wrong with -"

"This is not up for debate, Lapin," Bella Donna said darkly. "You're lucky I'm not going to put a bullet in your head for helping him. I told you to get out of the car, LeBeau."

She watched as Gambit slid over to the side door and let himself out.

"See ya Remy," said Emil. "Hey, we tried, right?"

"Oui," Gambit replied. "We tried."

"How touching," Bella Donna said. "Have fun getting through the traffic, Lapin."

"You're all heart, Bella," Emil replied.

Bella Donna rolled her eyes and she and her three Assassins escorted Gambit through the traffic lanes into the back corner of a nearby alley.

"Why'd you have to come back for, Remy?" Bella Donna asked. "I was the one who asked for leniency for you. I was the one who talked the council into exiling you instead of executing you. And now since you decided to break exile, _I'm_ the one who has to take out your execution."

"Desole if I have inconvenienced you, ma chere," Gambit replied smoothly. "Forgive me for wanting to see mon pere one last time."

"'One last time' happened eighteen years ago," Bella Donna snapped. "The whole point of exile was that you were supposed to be dead to everyone. We lost Julien, the Thieves lost you. A fair exchange."

"Non," Gambit replied. "I'm worth at least a thousand Juliens."

Bella Donna rolled her eyes. Gambit was pushed into the back corner and Bella Donna's Assassins stood in a line, blocking the view of anyone who might be passing by. Bella Donna pulled out her gun.

"Oui," said Gambit. "I see no reason to draw this out. Go ahead and shoot."

"What?" Bella Donna asked, sounding amused as she fitted her silencer. "So quick to end your life? I'm surprised you don't want to chat for a while. Maybe try and talk or fight your way out of it?"

"And what would be the point in that, Belle?" Gambit asked quietly. "Even assuming I can take out the four of you, how far would I get before I had to fight more of you? You've seen me. You _know_ I've broken exile. We both know what that means."

"Whatever happened to that impulsive, over-confident boy I once knew?" Bella Donna asked.

"He grew up, lost his family and the one woman he ever loved," Gambit replied, sounding bleak. "If my life is the price I have to pay for seeing my family again, so be it. Kill me and get it over with."

Bella Donna shrugged.

"Well," she said, "since you insist."

Bella Donna squeezed the trigger and Gambit's body shuddered as the bullet impacted. She shot him a second time and Gambit slumped to the ground. She walked over, aimed her gun to his head and shot him a third time, right between the eyes. Stone-faced, she watched as blood seeped out of his wounds, soaked his clothes and slowly dripped onto the ground.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

"Hello?" said Storm as she answered the phone.

"Bonjour Stormy," Gambit replied. "How's things?"

"Remy!" Storm exclaimed. "What on earth did you think you were doing - Everything's been fine - I've been worried sick about you!"

"Worried about little ol' me?" Gambit asked. "Aww, I'm touched, chere."

"I assume you're not in New Orleans any more?"

"You would assume correctly."

"Nice to know you got out unscathed. You did get out unscathed, right?"

"Of course. Did you expect any less?" Gambit replied cheerfully. "Oh, and I have news. Let's see, the Assassins think I'm dead, which - as long as I stay low for the short term - should mean that I can keep in contact with ma famille without them noticing. 'Cause they won't be looking for it, you know. Now I gave Henri the address and phone number for Xaviers, I hope you don't mind."

"No, of course not," Storm said. "How'd -"

"Speaking of Henri," Gambit went on, "I have a nephew. Jacques Remy LeBeau. He's thirteen and your typical teenager. On the downside, Pere... Pere had a stroke. They don't think he's going to recover."

"Remy, I'm so sorry," Storm said sympathetically.

"Thanks," Gambit said. "Anyway, just wanted to check in."

"I appreciate it. Does -"

"I have to go. I'll catch you later," Gambit said. "Oh and tell Forge his holo emitters are genius and I have a solution to his abduction problem."

Before Storm could get in another word, Gambit had hung up.

* * *

"So, he's safe?" Rogue asked.

"Yes, he's safe," Storm replied with a smile. "He didn't really give any other details.'

Rogue nodded slowly.

"When do you suppose he'll come back?" Rogue asked quietly. "I mean... he's obviously planning to if he's getting his family to contact him here."

"I don't know," Storm said honestly. "When he's ready, I suppose."

* * *

"Hi Ryan," said Gambit, walking into the shop. "I've come to collect."

"Sure," Ryan replied. "Got it right here."

"Merci."

"What was that all about?" Ryan asked as he pulled out the fat envelope that Gambit had left for him.

"Just a little contingency plan that fortunately wasn't needed," Gambit replied cheerfully.

"You were planning on doing something that could get you killed, weren't you?"

"I can tell you're so caught up about not having to post it too."

* * *

"Remy, I'm glad you called," said Storm, "I'm afraid I have some bad news."

"Oh?" asked Gambit.

"Jean-Luc passed away two weeks ago."

Gambit let out a long, slow breath. "Okay."

"Okay?" Storm repeated. "That's all you have to say?"

"I knew it was coming, 'Ro," Gambit said, his voice heavy. "I said my good byes when I had the chance because I knew I wouldn't get another chance to see mon pere again. Thanks for letting me know."

* * *

Forge put away the latest _Star Trek_ DVD he and Rogue had been watching.

"Hey Rogue," he said, "what do you think about hitting the _Star Trek_ convention in Las Vegas this year?"

Rogue shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"Because if we book now, we should be able to get rooms at the Hilton," Forge said. "Or, a room if you don't mind sharing. Not that I really know how soon they get booked out."

"One room would probably be cheaper," Rogue said with a slight grin. "I think we're adult enough to deal with sharing a room for a few nights."

"Great," Forge said merrily. "I'll book us in tomorrow. The convention isn't until August."

"Fair enough. Gives me plenty of time to decide on whether I'll go as an alien as well as a Star Fleet officer," Rogue mused.

"Go as an alien," Forge advised. "You can be human any time."

Rogue laughed.

* * *

August arrived and found Gambit in Las Vegas for the _Star Trek_ convention. He walked by the stalls and looked with interest at all the things for sale. Why, he didn't know, as he rarely bought anything, mostly on account of needing to travel light.

In between looking at stalls Gambit looked at the people, primarily the geeks in the costumes, and there were thousands of them to smirk at. Star Fleet uniforms, Klingons and Borg were everywhere. There were androids, Vulcans, Romulans, Bajorians, Cardassians, Andorians, Ferengi, a few women dressed up as Orion Slave Girls in various states of dress and many others. Not far away he spotted a Trill in a Star Fleet uniform hanging out with a Klingon.

A Trill with a distinctive white streak in her hair.

Gambit turned quickly, but evidentially it wasn't quick enough because he next word he heard over the crowd was "Remy?"

He pretended like he didn't hear, but this wasn't to enough to deter Rogue, who was so certain that she'd seen him. She made her way through the crowd and tapped him on the shoulder. Forge in his Klingon costume wasn't far behind.

"Remy?" Rogue tried again.

Gambit turned, if a little reluctantly and his eyes fell on Rogue in her red and black uniform, with her brown Trill spots running from her forehead down either side of her neck and her hair tied back in a sexy little bun.

"Bonjour cherie," he said softly. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Well, we were hoping to bump into you," Rogue replied with a smirk. "You told Storm you were heading to Vegas about the same time she knew Forge and I were going to be here. She put two and two together."

"Hey man," said Forge in his Klingon costume. "Long time no see."

"Yeah, it's been awhile."

"I missed you," Rogue admitted. "I mean, I know I was the one who told you to go, so I kind of brought it on myself but..."

Rogue trailed off as Gambit lifted his hand to stroke her cheek.

"I missed you too, ma chere," he said softly.

Rogue smiled and took his hand in hers. "Come join us?"

Gambit looked between them. "And hang out with you two costumed freaks?"

"You are so pathetic," Rogue replied with a grin. "One of these days we're going to get you into costume and you're going to love it."

"It's not going to happen," Gambit said firmly.

"What if I offer to dress up as an Orion Slave Girl again?"

"Don't toy with me, woman."

Rogue laughed and Gambit offered her a slight smile.

"So, how's the power control coming?" he asked her.

"I'm a lot better at it now," Rogue replied. "Otherwise there was no way I'd be in a crowd like this without something on my hands. I still have slips occasionally, but over all I'm pretty good."

"That's good news."

They dropped discussion of what they had been doing when Forge realised it was time for the next event and they had to get going if they wanted to catch it.

* * *

That evening, Rogue, Gambit and Forge sat down for dinner in the restaurant. Rogue and Forge were still in their costumes. Rogue was rather amused about having dinner with Forge in his latex Klingon head ridges.

"Okay," Rogue said. "I think I've quelled my curiosity long enough. What happened in New Orleans? All Storm told us was that you got out okay and that the Assassins think you're dead."

"Yeah, and Storm also said something about you having a solution to the abduction problem we were having with the holo-emitters?" Forge said. "You can't just tease me like that and then not come back to the mansion or send a letter or anything. I'm hurt, Remy. Hurt."

"Hear that, Roguey?" Gambit said with a grin. "I was teasing him."

Rogue giggled. "Don't change the subject."

"Well, I got to New Orleans during Carnival," Gambit said with a shrug. "I figured no one would really notice another northerner amongst a whole crowd of northerners. Unfortunately, what I didn't know was that Jean-Luc – mon pere – was dying and that the Assassins were especially on the look out for me in case the Guild decided to break exile by contacting me and arranging for me to see him one last time. One way or another they found out I was there. Problem was, we didn't know how they found out. If they were just guessing or only heard rumours, then I'd be okay. If any of the Assassins themselves had seen me though, it wouldn't have mattered if I got out of New Orleans alive or not. They would have tracked me down and killed me anyway. And trust me, they've very good at tracking people down. The only way to make sure they didn't was to make them think they'd killed me. Now, in anticipation for my little visit, I had previously programmed my holo emitter –"

"Wait, how?" Forge asked. "You need the interface back at the mansion to do that. And how did you even have a holo emitter anyway? We only have the twelve and I know none of them are missing."

"Forge," Gambit said patiently. "I'm a thief, and I helped you build and program the things. Do you need me to connect any more dots for you?"

Forge opened his mouth, considered and then closed it again. Rogue chuckled.

"I have my own interface and emitter," Gambit said. "I programmed the emitter with my image and made it so that I would have complete control over the hologram, up to and including speech. I'd also filled this canister up with my own blood –"

"You did what now?" Rogue asked.

"Are you going to let me tell the story or not?" Gambit asked and continued before she could reply: "I altered the programming of our decoy program so that if my hologram ever got shot, for example, instead of producing holographic blood, it would use the real stuff from the canister. We sent Emil on ahead with my hologram in an 'attempt' to smuggle me out of New Orleans. The Assassins caught 'me' though and took off with me so they could shoot me and leave me for dead in an alley. Sometimes just leaving the body is easier than cleaning up: anyone outside the Guilds would figure I'd either been robbed and murdered, or – given my obvious mutation – some sort of hate crime. Even if the cops ever suspected the Guilds, they could never pin anything on them."

"But that doesn't explain why you used real blood," Rogue said. "Your _own_ blood."

"They're _professional_ killers, Rogue," Gambit replied seriously. "They're not some stupid Hollywood perception of an assassin, they're the real thing. They don't just shoot someone and walk away. They _make sure_ you're dead. And they know every trick in the book for death faking too. The hologram gave me an edge because they'd never encountered that technology before, but I needed real blood. They check, you see. They know what blood is supposed to look like and behave. That means sometimes they'll touch it to verify the matter, and some of them even taste it."

"Taste?" Rogue repeated, turning up her nose. "Eww."

"There's some very good theatre blood out there," Gambit said, "but not even that can emulate taste."

"Huh," said Forge. "Is that why, when we were programming the decoys, you spent so much time on getting them to 'feel' human?"

"The thought process was the same," Gambit replied with a nod. "In the heat of the moment, even professionals might not notice if anything isn't quite right, but when the fight is over and they've had time to calm down, they take notice. And it's always the little things that catch you out. Anyway, in answer to your original question, Forge, after they killed me, I left the hologram in there until we could verify that the Assassins had left completely, and then I instructed the emitter to switch to a bird hologram, home in on my signal and fly home."

"Of course! Homing signals!" Forge exclaimed. "I should have thought of it myself."

Gambit chuckled.

"After that it was just a matter of leaving for real," Gambit said with a shrug. "Easy as pie."

"Were you planning this the whole time then?" asked Rogue. "You know, since you were last at the mansion?"

"Non," Gambit replied shaking his head. "I stole the holo emitter tech 'cause I'm a thief and you never know when that kind of thing can come in useful. Hello? Holographic technology? _Mobile_ holographic technology? It was just screaming to be stolen by me. As for New Orleans, I didn't seriously start thinking about visiting until a couple of months ago, and far be it for me not to go in without an ace up my sleeve."

Rogue smiled.

"So, just how is you family anyway?" asked Rogue. "Other than the Assassins and, umm, your father, did everything else go well?"

"Oui, it did," Gambit replied with a smile. "It was great to catch up with everyone again. My cousins have families. I have a nephew, Jacques. He's thirteen. Home has hardly changed at all, I... It was good to be home. I wish I could have stayed longer."

"Ever planning on going back?"

"Theoretically I could go back any time. They think I'm dead so they won't be looking for me," Gambit said as he looked down at his plate. "But I don't want to give them any reason to change their minds on that either. Maybe one day I will. Maybe I'll never step foot in New Orleans again. I really don't know."

"Well," Rogue said firmly. "However you managed it, I'm glad you're safe and in one piece."

"Merci," Gambit replied.

"Speaking of returning places," Forge said. "When _are_ you planning on coming back to Xaviers?"

"I don't know, some time," Gambit said with a shrug. "I'm sure Stormy's going to be as mad as all hell if I don't pop in once in awhile."

Rogue went quiet and started concentrating very hard on her food.

"Probably," Forge replied. "Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm full. Either that, or the discussion about tasting blood just to make sure someone's bleeding for real turned me off my food."

"Must be the first one," Gambit said with a smirk. "A true Klingon would not be turned off by that. In fact a true Klingon would have wanted to know the details of the discussion we had beforehand about the odds of the Assassins deciding to take a body part for a trophy and possibly would have criticised the Assassins for not ripping my still-beating heart out of my chest and eating it."

"Well, you have to admit, that would go a long way to verifying your death," Rogue said, pushing her plate away. It was one thing for heart-eating to be talked about by fictional characters. It was quite another for it to be discussed being done for real, especially to someone she loved.

"Yeah," said Forge. "I'm going to get changed now, and pick out my costume for tomorrow."

"You're not going to be a Klingon all convention?" Gambit asked.

"What's the point of having a million gazillion different Star Trek costumes if I don't wear them?" asked Forge, fishing some money out of his wallet to pay for his portion of the dinner.

"Good point," Gambit conceded.

"I'll see you later tonight then," said Rogue.

"Sure," Forge replied. "See yas."

Forge departed and for a moment, neither said a word.

"You'll see him tonight?" Gambit inquired. "Not tomorrow?"

"We're sharing a room," Rogue replied.

"Oh."

Silence.

"We figured it would be cheaper than getting two rooms," Rogue added.

"Oh, right," Gambit said.

More silence.

"So... how'd you manage all those Trill spots?" Gambit asked.

"Forge helped me paint them," Rogue replied.

"Yeah? How far down do they go?"

Rogue grinned at him.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she replied coyly.

"Oui, that's why I asked," Gambit said as the waitress came around to gather their plates.

"Dessert?" asked the waitress. "Tea? Coffee?"

Gambit glanced at the dessert menu and put an order in. Rogue just asked for a refill on the water.

"So, you and Forge have been getting close?" Gambit asked.

"Actually for all we live together I don't actually see all that much of him," Rogue said. "I think he's married to his inventions."

Gambit laughed and Rogue grinned at him.

"I think that if it wasn't for our weekly _Star Trek_ nights I wouldn't see him at all outside meals," Rogue went on, "and even then I think the real reason why we see Forge at meal time is because Storm threatens to send Logan in after him if he doesn't come out of his lab."

"Well that's one way to motivate someone," Gambit said.

"Yep," Rogue replied, paused and then added quietly: "I missed getting your letters."

Gambit didn't reply.

"I really liked getting them," she went on. "I liked knowing what was happening with you and I liked hearing from you and... but ever since New Orleans I hadn't heard anything except through Storm so, I umm... yeah."

"Yeah well, sorry about that," Gambit replied stiffly. "I never should have written to you in the first place."

Rogue pressed her lips together and looked away.

"I had this stupid idea that we might actually have a chance of getting back together," Gambit continued. "But then I got to thinking and I realised that it's never going to happen. Come on Rogue, what were you going to do when I returned to the mansion? Would you have actually agreed to date me again if I'd asked you? Would you have asked me, if I didn't? We would have done this stupid little dance where you wouldn't have been entirely sure if I was obsessed with you or not, and I wouldn't have been entirely sure if you weren't going to kick me out again. Let's not kid ourselves here, chere. We're not getting back together."

The waitress arrived with Gambit's dessert.

"Well," said Rogue after the waitress departed. "Since you feel that way about it, I won't waste any more of your time. Good bye, Remy."

She started to stand, but Gambit grabbed her arm and in a trice he was up out of his own seat, his lips locked with hers. They pulled apart after a minute and while Gambit gazed down at her, Rogue looked away.

"I... I don't understand," she stammered.

"Right," Gambit replied as he sat back down. "Like I'm really going to let you walk out of my life again."

Rogue cracked a smile as she sat back down again.

"But I swear," Gambit said as he attacked his cake with his fork. "If you ever accuse me of being obsessed and push me away again I'm... I'm going to prove you right by kidnapping you and chaining you up in my bedroom."

Rogue laughed.

"Not at Xaviers though," Gambit went on, "You know, in case they decide to rescue you. Of course, this means I would actually have to find a place to live, which would make work a little difficult... Eh, I can work out the logistics later."

He gave her a grin and a wink so she'd know he was joking and Rogue rolled her eyes, but not without a slight grin herself.

"Look, Remy," she said. "I'm really sorry about -"

"Want some cake?"

Rogue was silent for a moment. "Sure."

Gambit scooped up a bite with his fork and – much to her amusement – fed it to Rogue.

"It's good," she said.

"Want some more?"

"I'll be right, thanks."

Gambit finished eating, they paid the bill and then Gambit opted to walk Rogue back to her room.

"Wanna come in?" she asked as she opened the door.

Gambit shrugged. "Sure why not?"

They walked in to find Forge holding up his Romulan uniform and one of his Star Fleet uniforms.

"Oh hey, you're back," said Forge, glancing up at them. "I've decided that tomorrow calls for pointy ears, but I can't decide between the Romulans or the Vulcans."

Rogue snickered and pulled off her jacket.

"Romulan," Gambit said. "Hey Rogue, do I seen an edge to those Trill spots?"

"Hmm?" Rogue hummed and then glanced at her shoulder and noted where the spots ended close to the edge of her shirt. "Oh yeah, They only go down to my shoulders."

"I'm so disillusioned now," Gambit said, only half-joking. "I had this lovely, sexy image of you having two lines of Trill spots all the way down to your ankles."

"Aww, poor Remy," Rogue teased him.

"Geez man," Forge said. "Do you know how time consuming it was just to paint those spots? I don't even want to think about painting all of them. In fact, I think I shall have to invent an automatic Trill spot painter."

Rogue laughed.

"Forge," Gambit said. "I have to know something. Are you gay?"

"What? No!"

"Bi then?"

"No –"

"Trisexual?"

"No – what on earth is 'trisexual'?"

"Try anything," Gambit replied cheerfully.

"I'm completely straight, geez," Forge said disgustedly.

"Well, I had to ask. I mean, we come in here, you can't decide what to wear and then you start complaining about the idea of painting a naked woman," Gambit said with a smirk. "I'll paint Trill spots on Roguey any time."

Rogue snickered and Forge stared at Gambit for a long time.

"Why are we even friends?" Forge demanded finally.

"I ask myself the same question," Gambit replied.

* * *

**AN: **Tomorrow's chapter is the last one.


	17. Chapter 17

**AN: **[1] The unnamed 'red shirt' is always the first to die

* * *

**Chapter 17**

Gambit dropped by Forge and Rogue's room again in the morning after breakfast with the intention of going with them to the convention hall. He knocked and waited for them to come out. Forge, as planned, was wearing his Romulan uniform. What Gambit didn't expect, however, was the sight of Rogue in a pair of black boots, black stockings and a little red dress with long sleeves. Rogue grinned at Gambit as he stared at her in her new _Original Series_ Star Fleet uniform.

"So Roguey," Gambit said when he finally found his voice. "What do you say we skip the convention today and go back up to my room?"

Forge groaned. Rogue looked Gambit over casually and then tugged at his trench coat.

"No," she said finally. "I really don't think that that's the kind of coat Data was wearing when he was playing Sherlock Holmes on the holodeck. And you haven't even painted your skin white. You're going to have to work on your costume a bit more, Remy, before any... ahem... role playing is going to happen between us."

"No, don't say it," Forge said quickly, holding up his hand as Gambit opened his mouth to reply. "I don't want to hear it."

Gambit chuckled and he wrapped his arm around Rogue's waist as they followed Forge down the hall to the elevator.

"So, Roguey," he said. "I have to ask; are all of your uniforms red? Because you know what they say about red shirts." [1]

"Yeah they are," Rogue replied with a slight smile. "But this one's a dress."

"Minor detail," Forge said.

"Well, I'd pick green if there was a green uniform," Rogue said.

"Why don't you pick a uniform for the division, rather than the colour?" asked Forge. "You're a mechanic. Pick engineering."

"Well, by that logic I _am_ in the correct uniform," Rogue pointed out. "Red is engineering in the _Original Series_."

"She does raise a good point," Gambit said with a grin.

Forge sighed.

* * *

Over the next few days during the convention (it only lasted ten days) Gambit accused Rogue of teasing him by her constant switching between uniforms.

"One day you're wearing pants, the next day you're wearing a dress," he said. "What are you trying to do to me, woman?"

Rogue just laughed at him. Forge on the other hand, really did have a different costume for every day of the convention.

On the night of the sixth day, Rogue and Gambit went out for the evening. By the time they came back from their date it was quite late and rather than disturb Forge, Rogue took Gambit up on his offer to take her back to his room for the night.

One thing led to another and just as things were getting _really_ intimate, Rogue broke away.

"Chere?" Gambit inquired from the bed, feeling slightly put out.

"I'm... I'm sorry, I can't do this," Rogue said, reaching for her clothes. "I shouldn't have even come up here I -"

"Rogue," Gambit said, standing up and slipping his hands onto her hips. "What's wrong?"

Rogue looked away, avoiding his gaze.

"I just I... It's not that... Our relationship is kind of rocky at the moment," she said finally.

"I noticed that myself," Gambit replied, lifting his hand to cup her face.

"I just don't think this is a good idea," Rogue went on, pulling away. "The last time I... never mind."

"You slept with Bobby when your relationship was going bad," Gambit said, more calmly than he felt, "but you still broke up."

"I... How did you know? Wait, stupid question," Rogue said shaking her head and then proceeded to look horrified. "Oh hell, you saw that?"

"The beginning anyway," Gambit replied as he sat back down on the bed. "I remember saying you were going to regret it, actually. Guess I was right."

Rogue let out a long slow breath and finally sat down beside him.

"It sucked," she said finally. "Everything about it. I hit on Kitty the day before. Bobby and I were a mess; had been for ages, we just didn't want to admit it. I decided next time I would wait. I wouldn't make the stupid mistake of panicking because of something one of my psyches made me do or try and... and save a relationship that way."

"There you go, chere," Gambit said, wrapping his arm around her. "You learned something."

Rogue smiled ruefully.

"You know, Roguey, I didn't invite you up here so I could get in your pants," Gambit said. "Not that I would complain in the slightest if you let me. Just being with you makes me happy. We don't have to do anything."

Rogue turned her head and looked at him thoughtfully.

"Thank you," she said softly, then chewed her lip and added: "I love you, Remy."

Gambit caressed her cheek softly. "I love you too."

Their lips met and abruptly Gambit felt a wave of dizziness over him.

"Oh, damn," Rogue said, pulling away and shutting off her power. "Sorry, sorry. I'm not all there yet. Sorry."

"It's okay," Gambit assured her as soon as he could find his voice again. "No harm done."

Rogue's mind ran over quickly the thoughts she had picked up from him. Some of them were on the lustful side - which, given what they had been doing not that long ago was perfectly understandable - but certainly they were not to the overwhelming number that had both embarrassed and scared her in the past.

"Yeah," she agreed. "No harm done."

* * *

Rogue was back in her _Original Series_ uniform for day seven. Gambit was in his usual, every day clothes and Forge had decided that today was a good day for his Data impersonation, complete with yellow-tinted contact lenses. Rogue's Trill spots had been washed off completely a couple of days ago.

During lunch, Forge became intent on his food as once again Gambit and Rogue started having one of their 'moments'. These moments generally involved them kissing and him feeling like a third wheel. However, when their French kissing started getting a little heated (and them in a public place too), Forge lost it:

"Oh for goodness sake," he said disgustedly. "Why don't you just get a room already?"

"Sorry Forge," Rogue said bashfully as she pulled away.

Gambit ignored him, his eyes only on Rogue.

"Wanna get married?" he asked her.

Rogue blinked in surprise and then shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" she said. "What else is Vegas for? Gambling?"

"All right," said Gambit, standing up. "Let's go."

"Wait... you're serious?" asked Rogue, staring up at him.

"You're not?" he asked in reply.

"I just, umm... we only really, ahh, got back together a couple of days ago," she pointed out.

"I don't want to be with anyone else but you," Gambit said. "Why waste time?"

Rogue wasn't sure what to say to that. If she hadn't seen in his head the night before, she might have been inclined to think that this was just Gambit being obsessed over her again, but last night had told her that while he did love her, he'd finally calmed down. As she opened her mouth to reply, Gambit spoke again:

"We can go _Star Trek_ theme, seeing as how that's the occasion and all," he said. "I will even wear a Star Fleet uniform."

Rogue laughed and stood up.

"Now I _know_ you're serious," she said. "All right. Let's get married."

"Well, that was random," Forge said. "You guys sure you want to do this? You don't want to sleep on it or something?"

"Life's no fun if you don't make impulsive decisions every now and then," Gambit replied, holding Rogue's face fondly in his hands. "And there are some gambles that are always worth taking."

"I agree," Rogue said with a smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Plus the bonus of eloping is that no one can prevent us getting married by challenging you to a duel to the death."

"I like the way you think, chere," Gambit said with a grin. "I just need to get me a uniform and then I guess we'd better get to the chapel, no?"

"Here," said Forge. "I think my _Original Series_ Star Fleet uniform should fit you. All I ask is that you guys don't make me be the one to tell Storm and Logan."

* * *

The next few hours were spent arranging the marriage license and organising a chapel. Forge's uniform fit Gambit just fine. Gambit dubbed Forge the official photographer and gave him his camera. It was a new digital one with some extensive zoom features and Gambit was rather proud of it. Forge decided he didn't want to know.

Rogue and Gambit were next in line and Rogue found her hands shaking a little.

"Chere?" Gambit inquired as soon as he noticed. "You okay?"

"Yep, I'm fine," she replied.

"Second thoughts?" he asked.

"Yes and no," Rogue admitted after a pause. "A part of me keeps pointing out that we were only talking about our rocky relationship last night and now we're getting married. I mean, what we're doing is completely irrational and yet... yet it just seems so completely right."

"I trust my gut over my head any day of the week," Gambit said with a grin. "I know exactly what you mean. I feel the same way."

Then they were up and Forge followed them into the chapel. He watched as his two friends exchanged vows, snapping photos all the while. They signed the register and just like that, Rogue and Gambit were married.

"Well," said Forge. "Here's your camera back, Remy. I guess this means you'll be moving out of our room and into Remy's, Rogue?"

"Yeah," Rogue drawled. "I'm sure there are a few things to be said about married women sharing a room with a man who isn't their husband."

"Or some other relative," Gambit added with a grin.

"Great," said Forge. "And on that note, I hope you guys don't mind, but I think I'm going to enjoy the rest of the convention on my own. Not that it hasn't been great hanging with you two -"

"It's okay, really," Rogue said, giving him a hug. "Thanks for all your support, Forge."

"Hey, no problem," Forge replied, hugging her back. "Oh, and Remy? You can keep the uniform. I have a feeling after today I'm not going to want it back."

Gambit chuckled.

"I'll get you a new one," he promised.

"I'm going to hold you to that," Forge replied with a grin. "Okay, congrats, enjoy your honeymoon, I'm off."

Rogue and Gambit chuckled as Forge bounded off back towards the convention. The newlyweds returned to Forge's hotel room to grab Rogue's things.

"He's a good guy, Forge," said Rogue. "He stuck with us even when I'm sure we were making him feel like a third wheel or something."

"Ha yeah," Gambit replied. "Maybe we should get him a 'real' phaser to go along with his 'real' bat'leth."

"Yeah, don't laugh," said Rogue. "I think he's working on making one."

Gambit laughed anyway.

They packed up and Rogue left her door key behind for Forge. Gambit carried Rogue's bag as they made their way to his hotel room. The door shut behind them and Gambit dropped Rogue's bag on the floor.

"So, Madame LeBeau," Gambit said, wrapping his arms around Rogue. "Now that we've been married for a whole..." he paused while he checked his watch, "half hour now, what do you say that you and I go back down to the con?"

Rogue laughed and kissed him lightly.

"You know, it's funny," she said. "I was about to ask you the same thing... Monsieur LeBeau."

"All right then," Gambit said cheerfully, keeping one arm about her waist as he lead them to the door. "Also, Roguey, you know what this proves?"

"What's that, Remy?" Rogue asked as she followed him out the door.

"We're perfect for each other," Gambit replied. "We just got married and we're choosing _Star Trek_ over sex."

"Aww, but we can do that any time," Rogue pointed out, but not without a grin. "The con is only going to be on for a couple more days though, and then it's over for a whole year."

"This is true," Gambit agreed while they walked to the elevator. "You know what else this means?"

"What?"

"We've got the best excuse for coming back here next year: our wedding anniversary."

Rogue laughed. They stepped onto the elevator and pressed the button for the appropriate floor. Halfway there, Gambit asked the other question he had.

"So, chere," he said. "Did I happen to see green body paint in your bag?"

"Possibly," Rogue replied slyly. "I have no especial interest in dressing up as an Orion Slave Girl again, but I ended up buying more paint than I needed the first time around, so you never know."

There was a moment's silence.

"Tomorrow?" Gambit asked hopefully.

"Sure, why not?" Rogue said casually. "Just as long as you don't keep me up too late tonight and you don't mind helping me with the paint in the morning. You know, all those 'hard to reach' places."

Gambit pulled Rogue into him.

"Best wife ever," he said, and he silenced her giggles with a kiss.

* * *

The following day Forge was dressed up in his Borg costume. It had undergone some significant improvements since the last time he wore it and he was really rather proud of it. Of course, it helped that he really did have a cybernetic arm and leg that could transform between human mode and machine mode at his whim.

"Wow," said a female voice behind him. "That's an amazing costume."

"Thanks," Forge said as he turned around.

His eyes proceeded to boggle out as they laid on the Seven of Nine lookalike standing before him. She was dressed in a replica of Seven's cobalt blue catsuit and had all of her Borg implants.

"You've got moving parts and everything," she went on. "It must have taken you ages to get everything just right."

"Oh, uhh, yeah," Forge stammered, caught himself and continued: "You look great yourself. I love the detail of your Borg implants. They look exactly like them."

"Hey thanks," she replied. "So, these all for show? Or can they do anything?"

"Oh sure," Forge said and abruptly two tubes emerged from his arm with a light zipping noise.

"Assimilation tubules," she said with a laugh. "Nice."

"It gets better," Forge said gleefully and hit a panel on his arm. "All they need is this adaptor attached to the ends of both tubules and it will plug into any USB port. I have this nifty little LCD screen here - see? And yeah, I can plug into your computer."

"Well, that's very cool," she said. "I'm not entirely sure the Borg had that kind of thing -"

"But they could tap into computers with their tubules," Forge pointed out.

"True. I meant the LCD screen."

"Point taken."

"You here on your own?" she asked.

"Sort of," Forge replied. "I was here with two friends but they decided that since we were in Vegas, they should get hitched."

"I see."

"I decided to didn't want to hang around while they were on their, ahem, honeymoon. They were bad enough pre-wedding," Forge said dryly.

The woman chuckled.

"I'm actually here on my own as well," she admitted. "Hey, they've having a prop auction on in a minute -"

"Yeah, I was actually on my way there," said Forge. "Care to join me?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

* * *

**The End**

A big thanks to everyone for all of your reviews. I hope you all enjoyed the story as much as I did writing it. Ahh, all the eviling giggling I did... hehehe

Another shout out to Lucida Lownes, who had the original idea, gave me a hand and fully supported and encouraged my evil giggling.

The next story shall be Don't Ruin the Upholstery #4.


	18. Epilogue

**AN: **

Well, I wasn't going to write an epilogue, but I got so many requests for more that I gave in, haha. One of the chief requests was to see everyone's – especially Storm and Logan's - reactions to Gambit and Rogue's sudden marriage. Personally, I think you're nuts. Why would you want to see Storm and Logan's reactions to the marriage? That's a conversation that's only going to end badly:

**Storm:** Oh dear goddess, you did what?

**Logan:** Were you drunk?

**Rogue:** No

**Gambit:** Full from lunch though

**Storm:** Trust you to make an impulsive decision, Remy. Really, there are some things you need to _think_ about first.

**Gambit:** Hey we thought about it. (For all of 10 seconds.)

**Storm:** Which might be adequate thinking time for deciding what shirt to wear, but _not_ for getting _married_!

**Logan:** You're not pregnant, are you?

**Rogue:** What? _No__!_ And even if I was, it would be too early to tell anyway.

**Storm:** Forge, why didn't you stop them?

**Forge:** I did suggest they might want to think about it some more -

**Logan:** Suggest!

**Rogue:** What's wrong with you people? Why can't you just be happy for us?

**Kitty:** Umm, I'm happy for you

**Rogue:** Thank you Kitty

_Logan death glares Kitty. Kitty squeals in fright and hides._

Hehe. I send a variation of that to a whole bunch of people yesterday who wanted to see the reaction and a couple of others whom I thought would appreciate it. Seriously, I did not want to end the story with Rogue, Gambit, Logan and Storm fighting.

However, since so many of you did want more and requested an epilogue, I have decided to acquiesce. Besides, the chief criticism of this story (and I have to agree) was that it seemed rushed. I got impatient and it ruined the pacing of the story. So that's my advice to anyone who wants it: don't get impatient, haha.

* * *

**Epilogue**

Rogue and Gambit sat at the desk in their hotel room. The last day of the convention had come to an end yesterday and Forge had already returned home. Rogue and Gambit had opted to stay another couple of days in Vegas and were now looking at photos on Gambit's laptop.

"Remy?" Rogue asked, looking at the latest photo on the screen.

"Oui ma chere?"

"Did you get enough pictures of me as an Orion?"

Gambit considered thoughtfully, using the question as an excuse to continue gazing at the all so lovely picture of green-painted, scantily-clad Rogue leaning over.

"Possibly not," he said finally.

"Uh huh," Rogue drawled and then pointed to one of the other convention goers in the shot. "He's checking me out."

"Merde," Gambit exclaimed and pointed to another guy. "And so's he."

Rogue chuckled wickedly and moved to the next photo, which was another picture of her fine green self. Or more accurately, her fine green self from behind.

"Remy!" Rogue exclaimed and jabbed him in the ribs.

"Oh that's a good shot," Gambit said with a smirk.

"And you wonder why you're not the only one ogling me," Rogue muttered. "What did you expect was going to happen, Remy?"

"Hmph," Gambit grunted and pressed the button for the next photo. "Hey when did you take this?"

"When you weren't looking apparently," Rogue replied with a smirk, looking proudly at the picture of Gambit in Forge's uniform, studying a large replica of the _Enterprise_ from the _Original Series_.

They flipped through a few more photos of Rogue as an Orion Slave Girl and then got to the wedding photos that Forge had taken.

"Aww, I like this photo," Rogue said, admiring a close up shot of herself wrapped up in Gambit's arms. "We definitely need to get this one printed and framed."

"I agree," Gambit said.

Gambit wrote down the filename on a nearby sheet of paper and then flipped to the next photo. They watched their oh-so-short wedding happen in reverse, going through the ceremony and emerging in the waiting room. They stopped on one photo, of which the focus was a shoe.

"Okay," said Rogue slowly. "Is that Forge's shoe or yours?"

"I think that's Forge's," Gambit said thoughtfully. "Typical. He's gone and taken photos for the sake of taking photos."

The next photo was of Forge's hand, then a few of Forge's face taken at an awkward angle with him pulling difference faces in each photo. There was a photo of the chapel and then there are a series of photos of random objects and candid shots of Rogue and Gambit.

"Someone got a little trigger-happy," Gambit said dryly.

Rogue just laughed.

"And that's the last of the new ones," Gambit said. "Oh, I should show you the ones from New Orleans."

"Okay sure," Rogue agreed brightly.

Gambit opened up the relevant album.

"Well this is a good photo to open up on," Gambit said and then proceeded to point to everyone in the group shot. "That's my sister-in-law, Mercy; mon frere, Henri; mon nephew, Jacques –"

"He's so happy to be photographed too," Rogue said with a smirk.

"If you think that look's sour, you should see the one of him dressed up as a pirate," Gambit replied. "Those are my cousins Theo and Emil, and that's Tante Mattie. Tante's like our surrogate mother. She's looked after all of us and I swear she always knows what you're going to do before you do."

Rogue laughed at the half indignant, half pleased expression on his face. She pointed to the last figure in the picture.

"Who's that?" she asked cheekily.

"That's me, silly girl," Gambit replied.

"Ohhhh, it is too," Rogue joked. "Fancy that."

"No photos of Jean-Luc though," Gambit said as he continued through the photos. "Mercy was going to send some pre-stroke photos of him to Stormy for me though."

"I'm sorry about your dad," Rogue said softly.

"Yeah. Me too," Gambit replied. "Ah ha! Here's Jacques the pirate."

"That really is a sour look," Rogue said with a giggle.

"Oui, and we'll just skip this next photo and –"

"Waitwaitwait, was that you as a pirate?"

"No, this is Mercy and Henri as pirates," Gambit said.

"Not that photo, dork boy," Rogue said, reaching for the mouse. "The one before. The one you skipped."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Gambit said, attempting to hold the mouse away and fend Rogue off.

"I wanna see," Rogue declared. "Show me!"

"I really don't think so," Gambit replied.

Her attempt to get the mouse foiled, Rogue pulled a face and then lit up and pressed a button on the keyboard instead to flip the photo back.

"Aww you look great!" she exclaimed.

"Dammit," Gambit muttered. "I knew I should have deleted that photo."

Rogue giggled as Gambit put the mouse back down on the desk.

"Are you actually embarrassed?" Rogue asked with a silly grin on her face.

"Why should I be embarrassed?" Gambit asked loftily. "That pirate costume got me in and out of New Orleans unseen."

"Uh huh," Rogue drawled. "Star Fleet uniform didn't seem so bad after that?"

"Well, at least I'm not half-blind in the Star Fleet uniform," Gambit replied.

Rogue chuckled and wrapped her arms around him.

"Going back home soon," she said as she snuggled into him. "I wonder how everyone's going to react."

"I have no idea," Gambit replied. "But I do know one thing."

"What's that?"

"I'm going to have words with Forge about my camera."

Rogue laughed.

"Hey when you get Forge a new uniform, you should get a new one for yourself," she said. "A nice gold one. That way next con you can be Captain Kirk and I can do the Orion costume you like so much."

"I don't know, cherie," Gambit said thoughtfully. "I think a few too many other people like it too."

"Yes, but I'm _your_ wife, not theirs," Rogue pointed out. "Whaddya say, Captain?"

Gambit's eyes ran over Rogue with a slight smile on his face. He glanced over at the bed behind them and then looked back at Rogue's sly grin.

"I think I need to see you in my ready room," he drawled.


End file.
